THE 

IFEo/LIVES 




THE STORY OF 

OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST 

FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 



LOUISE MORGAN SILL. 





Class. 
Book.. 






,vS' 



Copyright N ( 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE LIFE OF LIVES 



LOUISE MORGAN SILL 



THE 

LIFE OF LIVES 

The Story of Our Lord Jesus Christ 
For Young People 

BY 

LOUISE MORGAN SILL 




NEW ^fi^ YORK 
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 






COPYRIGHT, 1922, 
BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 



THE LIFE OF LIVES. I 
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



OCT -8 72 

©C1A6SC112 
Tip I 



AUTHOR'S NOTE 

As the object of this book is an effort to make 
more real and vivid to general readers the char- 
acter of Our Lord and the nature of His earthly 
surroundings, to bring Him nearer to the under- 
standing, I have taken all Biblical quotations 
from Dr. James Moffatt's "New Translation of 
the New Testament" rather than from the beau- 
tiful and familiar King James Version of the 
Bible. 

Dr. Moffatt's new translation is the work of 
a profound scholar who has availed himself of 
the most recent discoveries, and has reclothed the 
Gospels in plain, vigorous, accurate language 
which can be understood at a glance by the most 
casual reader, and which produces a quite fresh 
impression. 



CONTENTS 



I: THE JOURNEY TO BETHLEHEM 

Mary and Joseph travel from Nazaret to Bethlehem 
— The nature of the country — The object of their 
journey — They arrive at the inn — Description of the 
inn— Night falls 19 

II: THE SHEPHERDS ARE TOLD OF THE 
BIRTH 

The Shepherds muse on the promised Messiah — They 
are visited at night by the Angel — The Angel tells 
them of the birth of Christ and that the Babe will 
be found in a manger — The Shepherds go to the 
Bethlehem Inn, find the Babe, and worship Him — 
They proclaim the news in the village and return to 
their flocks 24 

III: WHY THE MESSIAH WAS EXPECTED 

The Jews' longing for a Messiah — Their nature and 
religious attitude — -Their country conquered by Ro- 
mans — The Jews' obstinacy and materialism — The 
legend of Pan's death, and the new spirit of religion 
— All signs pointing to the birth of Christ ... 30 

IV: THE WISE MEN AND HEROD 

The Wise Men from the East reach Jerusalem — They 
tell of their journey following the star, and their 
search for the new-born Messiah: — Herod the Great 
is King — His wicked character and great public 
works — His rebuilding of the Temple — He infuriates 
the Jews — He hears of the Wise Men, and summons 
Chief Priests and Scribes — He sends privately for 
the Wise Men — His suspicion and jealousy of the 
"new-born king" — The Wise Men find and worship 
the Child at Bethlehem — Fearing Herod they return 
to their homes 35 

V: THE PRESENTATION AND FLIGHT 

The Angel's announcement to Mary of Jesus' birth 
— The Babe is circumcised — He is taken to the 



viii CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAQE 

Temple at Jerusalem for His Presentation— The 
magnificence of the Temple and its ceremonies— 
The great crowds at Jerusalem — Simeon and Han- 
nah recognize the Child — Joseph is warned of dan- 
ger in a dream — The Child is taken to Egypt — 
Herod's massacre of the children — Herod the Great 
— His wickedness, miserable old age, and death . 42 

VI: THE RETURN TO NAZARETH 

Mary and Joseph bring the Child out of Egypt to 
Nazaret— Almost nothing in the Gospels about 
Jesus' childhood and youth— His life in Nazaret— 
Houses and customs— The character of the Boy 
Jesus — His learning, and His nature — The country 
around Nazaret — Jesus' spiritual preparation . . 51 

VII: JESUS GOES TO JERUSALEM 

Jesus at twelve years of age begins to learn a trade- 
He makes His first journey to Jerusalem — The Pil- 
grims to the Passover — The city and the crowds — 
Jesus disappears— He is found after three days in 
the Temple talking with the doctors— His reply to 
Mary— He submits to His parents, and returns to 
Nazaret— His self-knowledge— His language— His 
studies, work and character— His sinlessness . . 57 

VIII: JESUS IS BAPTISED AND TEMPTED 

The state of morals at this time — John the Baptist 
begins to preach and baptise — His appearance, way 
of life and mission— His words — He baptises multi- 
tudes — His policy of action — He foretells Our 
Lord's coming — Jesus is baptised — His godlike ap- 
pearance — The Spirit of God descends upon Him — 
What baptism meant — Jesus is tempted by the devil 
— He conquers temptation and returns to Galilee . 63 

IX: THE FIRST DISCIPLES 

John rebukes Herod Antipas, governor of Galilee — 
The evil nfe of Antipas — He imprisons John — John's 
prison — Andrew and John (the Evangelist) follow 
Jesus — Andrew brings Peter to Jesus — The names of 
the twelve Apostles — Their character and life- 
Power of Jesus' personality — Jesus returns to Gali- 
lee — How Bartholomew came to Him — The Province 
and people of Galilee 70 



CONTENTS ix 

CHAPTER PAGE 

X: THE FIRST MIRACLES 

Jesus teaches in the synagogues of Nazaret and 
Capharnahum — The marriage at Cana — The turning 
of the water into wine — Jesus desires to declare 
His Messiahship in the synagogue at Nazaret — The 
people rise against and expel Him — Jesus' power 
over them — He goes to Capharnahum — The people 
listen to Him — Jesus heals a man possessed of a 
devil — Jesus' teaching 76 

XI: THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT 

The town of Capharnahum — The Sea of Galilee: its 
active commerce — Nature of the Galileans — Jesus 
lives in Peter's house — He heals Peter's wife's 
mother — Rich and poor bring to Him their sick — 
Jesus seeks solitude for prayer and rest — He leaves 
Capharnahum, and preaches throughout Galilee — He 
heals the leper — Multitudes throng to Jesus — He 
heals and teaches them — He preaches the Sermon on 
the Mount — The Jews' surprise at this new morality 
— Our own slowness to comprehend 83 

XII: JESUS CLEANSES THE TEMPLE 

Jesus returns to Capharnahum — He heals the centu- 
rion's servant — Thirty-three miracles of Jesus re- 
corded in Gospels — Jesus goes to the Passover at 
Jerusalem — He drives out the traders and their 
beasts, and the money-changers — His conflict with 
the Jews — He returns to Galilee through Samaria — 
He tells the Samaritan woman He is the Messiah — 
The Samaritans beg Him to remain — He stays two 
days, teaching them — He returns to Galilee ... 90 

XIII: JESUS RAISES THE DEAD 

Jesus goes to Nain — He raises the widow's son from 
the dead — John the Baptist hears of this, and sends 
messengers to ask if Jesus be the Messiah — Jesus 
shows them wonderful works of healing, and sends 
them back to John — Jesus calms the storm and the 
waves — Jesus heals two men possessed of devils, 
and the devils enter the herd of Swine, which per- 
ishes — The Gergesenes ask Jesus to depart from 
them — Jesus returns to Capharnahum — He heals the 
paralysed man who is let down through the roof — 
The Scribes criticise, and consider Him blas- 
phemous 99 



x CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XIV: THE SCRIBES AND PHARISEES 

Who they were— Their attitude toward Jesus — Jesus' 
love for all — His disciples hunger and pluck corn on 
the Sabbath — The Pharisees criticise, and Jesus re- 
bukes them — Jesus heals the withered hand on the 
Sabbath — The Pharisees go away in anger — Jesus 
heals the deaf and dumb man, who also had a 
devil — The Pharisees accuse Jesus — He replies — 
Jesus calls Matthew to be His disciple — He eats at 
Matthew's house — The Pharisees object, and Jesus 
replies 104 

XV: JESUS PERFORMS OTHER MIRACLES 

Jesus heals the woman who touches Him with faith — 
He raises from the dead the daughter of Jairus — 
Jesus eats with Simon the Pharisee — Mary Mag- 
dalene anoints Him — He forgives her sins, and re- 
bukes Simon — The Pharisees murmur against Him 
— Jesus heals the paralysed man by the Pool of 
Bethzatha in Jerusalem, on the Sabbath — The Jews 
interfere and protest — They begin to plot against 
Jesus' life Ill 

XVI: THE DEATH OF JOHN THE BAPTIST 

Herod Antipas gives a feast — Salome dances, and asks 
for the head of John — John is slain — His disciples 
bury him — Jesus, hearing of John's death, sends out 
His twelve disciples, whom He has named Apostles 
— They return, and go with Jesus near the Sea of 
Galilee— Multitudes follow Him — Jesus feeds five 
thousand with five loaves and two fishes — Why diffi- 
culty in believing this miracle? 119 

XVII: THE TRANSFIGURATION OF JESUS 

Jesus foretells His death to the Apostles — He com- 
mands them to tell no man— Peter protests against 
His death, and is rebuked — Jesus goes with several 
Apostles to pray on a lonely mountain — He is trans- 
figured before them — His Apostles are proud — He 
teaches them humility through a little child — Jesus 
blesses the children — He shows the Apostles that 
sinners are of value to God — The parable of the 
lost sheep — He teaches forgiveness of one another's 
offenses .126 

XVIII: THE PARABLE OF THE PRODIGAL 
SON 

The story, and the lesson of God's merciful Fatherhood 
to be drawn therefrom 132 



CONTENTS xi 



XIX: JESUS FEEDS THE FOUR THOUSAND 

Jesus sends His disciples over the Sea of Galilee 
to Bethsaida — He prays on the mountain — He walks 
on the water to the disciples' boat — They land in 
the Plain of Gennesaret and the people bring their 
sick to be healed — Scribes and Pharisees see the 
disciples eat bread without washing their hands — 
They criticise — Jesus rebukes their hypocrisy, and 
teaches the people what true defilement is — Jesus 
goes into Phoenicia — He heals the Syro-phoenician 
woman's daughter — Jesus returns to tlie coast of 
the Sea of Galilee — He heals a deaf and dumb man 
— Multitudes follow Jesus — He feeds four thousand 
with seven loaves and a few fishes — The scepticism 
of the Scribes and Pharisees — He goes to the 
towns around Csesarea Philippi — He asks the dis- 
ciples who" men say He is, and who they say He 
is — Peter testifies to His godhead — Jesus heals the 
boy possessed of a devil — The father cries, "Help 
my unbelief" — Jesus rebukes the disciples for for- 
bidding a stranger to heal in His Name .... 138 

XX: THE PARABLE OF THE GOOD SA- 
MARITAN 

Jesus preaches at Capharnahum, and tells them He 
came down from Heaven — The people murmur 
against Him — He reasons with them, but they desert 
Him — He asks the disciples if they too will leave 
Him — .Peter ardently proclaims Him Christ — Jesus 
tells them that one of them shall betray Him — News 
comes of the murder of Galileans in Jerusalem by 
Pontius Pilate — Jesus is warned that Herod 
Antipas intends to kill Him — He disregards the 
warning — He leaves Galilee, which rejects Him, 
and starts for Jerusalem, preaching and healing all 
the way — A Samaritan village refuses to receive 
Him — Another receives Him — Many follow Him — 
He sends forward seventy of His disciples to pre- 
pare the way, and to heal — They return full of 
enthusiasm for the success of their work — A lawyer 
asks Him how he shall inherit eternal life — Jesus 
tells him to love God and his neighbor as himself — 
Jesus explains who is his neighbor by the parable 
of the Good Samaritan 146 



xii CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XXI: JESUS CONTINUES HIS LAST JOUR- 
NEY 

Two months probably consumed in journey from 
Galilee to Jerusalem — The rich young man refuses 
the great sacrifice — Difficulty for a rich man to 
enter into the Kingdom of' God — But Jesus tells 
the disciples that "with God all things are possible" 
— Jesus counsels perseverance in prayer — Jesus and 
His disciples rest at Ephraim, and then go onward 
to Feast of Dedication at Jerusalem — The Phari- 
sees question Jesus in the Temple — They threaten 
Him with stoning, but He escapes — The Chief 
Priests and Pharisees send officers to take Him, but 
they do not — Jesus sleeps on Mount of Olives — He 
returns to Temple to preach — He forgives and con- 
verts the woman taken in adultery — Jesus goes to 
Peraea— The Village of Bethany — How Jesus had 
gently rebuked Martha, sister of Lazarus, for over- 
zeal in material affairs 155 

XXII: LAZARUS IS RAISED FROM THE 

DEAD 

Jesus goes to Bethany in Peraea — The Pharisees ques- 
tion Him — Jesus hears of the illness of Lazarus at 
Bethany in Judaea — He waits two days — His disci- 
ples urge Him not to return to the dangers of Judaea 
— Jesus goes to Bethany — Martha meets Him outside 
the village and tells Him of Lazarus' death — Jesus 
summons Mary — Jesus is troubled — He weeps — The 
Jews sneer — Jesus gives thanks and glory to God, 
and raises Lazarus from the dead before many wit- 
nesses 165 

XXIII: JESUS IS TRIUMPHANT 

The miracle of Lazarus causes many to believe — Some, 
hating Jesus, report His miracle to the Pharisees 
in Jerusalem — The Pharisees and High Priests hold 
a council — The High Priest, Caiaphus, says Jesus 
must die — The Sanhedrin commands that Jesus be 
betrayed into their hands — Jesus, hearing this, goes 
to Ephraim in Samaria — Jesus and His disciples go 
to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover — He 
again foretells His death to His Apostles — They do 
not realise it — The mother of James and John asks 
honor for her sons — Jesus explains the law of true 
greatness — They approach Jericho — Bartimaeus is 



CONTENTS xiii 

CHAPTER PAGE 

healed of blindness — They enter Jericho — Jesus 
abides with Zacchseus the tax-collector — Zacchseus 
is converted from sin 171 

XXIV: JESUS ENTERS JERUSALEM 

The journey to Jerusalem — Jesus stops at Bethany of 
Judaea on the way — The supper at Lazarus' house 
— Mary anoints Jesus with the spikenard — Judas Is- 
cariot is angry at this "waste" — The other disciples 
displeased — Jesus rebukes them — Judas, enraged, 
sets out alone for Jerusalem — He betrays Jesus to 
the Sanhedrin for thirty pieces of silver — News is 
spread that Jesus is coming to Jerusalem — Jesus 
sends for the ass, mounts it, and rides toward Je- 
rusalem followed by popular acclamations — He 
pauses on Mount of Olives, and weeps over the 
wicked and obdurate pride of Jerusalem, and its 
coming fate — The incident of the maniac who later 
prophesies the fall of the city — Jesus reaches Jerusa- 
lem and enters the Temple — He again cleanses it 
— He heals the people — The High Priests and Scribes 
question His authority — Jesus silences them with 
reasoning — Jesus goes to Bethany to pass the 
night 179 

XXV: JESUS SILENCES THE SADDUCEES 

The conspiracy against Jesus grows — Excommunica- 
tion threatened for all who express belief in Him — 
Certain rulers inclined to believe, but fear to avow it 
— Jesus, crossing Mount of Olives on the way to 
Jerusalem, withers the barren fig tree — Teaches les- 
son as to unfruitful faith — Jesus teaches in Temple 
— Pharisees and Herodians unite against Him — 
They hypocritically ask, "Is it lawful to give tribute 
to Caesar?" — Jesus replies and puts them to con- 
fusion — The Sadduccees — They question Him as to 
marriage after death — He replies and they cannot 
answer — Jesus instructs them as to the resurrection 
— A Scribe asks, Which is the first commandment? 
Jesus replies, To love God and our neighbor — This 
the last time Jesus was questioned before His 
"trials" 190 

XXVI: JESUS INSTITUTES THE LORD'S 

SUPPER 

Jesus preaches to multitudes in the Temple — He warns 
them against hypocrisy — He grieves over Jerusalem 



xiv CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

— He prophesies overthrow of the Temple — The 
siege of Jerusalem — The incident of the widow's 
mites — Jesus leaves the Temple, for the last time — 
Jesus and the disciples return to Bethany — He 
pauses on the Mount of Olives, and preaches His 
sermon on the Last Day and His coming in glory 
— The following day passes in meditation and teach- 
ing in Bethany — Next day, Thursday, Jesus sends 
Peter and John to Jerusalem to prepare the Feast 
of the Passover — He tells them where the upper 
chamber will be found — There they all assemble — 
The disciples dispute as to who shall be greatest — 
Jesus, to teach them humility, washes the feet of 
them all — Peter protests and is gently rebuked — 
Jesus establishes the Holy Communion — Jesus is 
troubled, and says one of them shall betray Him — 
Jesus indicates Judas by the giving of the sop — 
Judas departs — Jesus admonishes them to love one 
another — He promises them a Comforter in the 
Holy Spirit, to abide with them forever — Still they 
do not realise His approaching death — He tells 
Peter of his coming denial of Him — They set out to 
pass the night in the Garden of Gethsemane . . 198 



XXVII: JESUS IS BETRAYED 

The Garden of Gethsemane — Jesus goes apart with 
Peter, John and James — He tells them to watch — 
Jesus undergoes spiritual agony — He expresses 
human shrinking and godlike resignation — He re- 
turns and finds the three Apostles asleep— He gently 
reproaches them — He resumes His prayer, and re- 
turning, again finds them asleep) — Jesus says He is 
now betrayed — The armed crowd approaches led by 
Judas — Jesus gives Himself up to them — He is 
taken to Annas, former High Priest — Who Annas 
was — Annas examines Him, but can make nothing 
of it — His servant strikes Our Lord — Jesus replies 
with quiet reasoning to the blow — Annas sends 
Jesus to Caiaphas, before the illegal night-session 
of the Sanhedrin — They accuse Jesus of blasphemy, 
and bring false witnesses against Him — Jesus an- 
swers nothing — Caiaphas is enraged and baffled — 
Jesus declares Himself the Son of God, and the 
Son of Man who will come in glory — Caiaphas rends 
his clothes at this "blasphemy" — The Court pro- 
nounces Jesus "guilty of death" 207 



CONTENTS xv 



XXVIII: THE SO-CALLED TRIALS OF JESUS 

The Sanhedrin had no legal right to inflict death — 
Jesus kept a prisoner in the palace of Caiaphas 
during the night — He is mocked and derided by serv- 
ants and menials — Peter denies Jesus — Jesus is 
taken before morning session of Sanhedrin — Judas 
is remorseful and confesses his crime — He hangs 
himself — The palace of Pontius Pilate — Jesus is 
brought by the Chief Priests and elders to Pilate's 
Judgment Hall — They accuse Jesus to Pilate — Pilate 
examines Jesus — Jesus' replies — Pilate says, "I find 
no fault in him at all." 215 

XXIX: THE STRUGGLE OF PILATE 

Pilate sends Jesus to Herod Antipas — Inferiority of 
Antipas — Jesus' silence — Antipas' soldiers mock 
and insult Him — Herod sends Him back to Pilate — 
The sixth so-called trial — Pilate's indecision — His 
wife's warning — Pilate offers to release Jesus to the 
people for the Passover — They demand Barabbas in- 
stead — "Crucify him" — Pilate washes his hands be- 
fore the people to avow his innocence of Jesus' 
death — The people cry "His blood be on us" — Pilate 
orders the scourging of Jesus — Jesus is derided and 
insulted and clad in a purple robe. He is crowned 
with thorns and given a reed for sceptre — Pilate 
again takes Him before His accusers — Pilate again 
says he finds no fault in Him — The Jews say He is 
worthy of deatli — 'Pilate again questions Jesus — Jesus 
is silent — Pilate is angry — Jesus replies, and Pilate 
again tries to release him — The Jews invoke Pilate's 
fear of Caesar — Pilate delivers up Jesus — Moral of 
Pilate's struggle 222 

XXX: THE CRUCIFIXION 

What death by crucifixion means — Jesus shows Himself 
no mercy — The soldiers take Him to Golgotha — ■ 
Simon bears his cross — People follow — Women la- 
ment and are rebuked and warned by Jesus — Jesus 
is nailed on the cross — Two thieves are crucified 
with Him — Jesus forgives His murderers — The sol- 
diers share His garments — The people taunt and in- 
sult Him — He forgives the penitent thief — The Vir- 
gin Mary and the other women at the cross — Jesus 
confides His Mother to John — Jesus' last human 
cry — A soldier offers Him vinegar — Jesus' last words 
— The phenomena of Nature — The fear of the sol- 
diers 230 



xvi CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XXXI: THE RESURRECTION 

The Jews ask Pilate to make sure of the death of the 
victims — Our Lord's side is pierced — Joseph of 
Arimathsea asks our Lord's body of Pilate — Nico- 
demus brings spices — Our Lord is buried in Joseph's 
tomb — The burial is witnessed by the women — The 
Jews ask Pilate that a watch be set at the Sepulchre 
— The women and soldiers discover Our Lord's resur- 
rection — The women tell the disciples — Peter and 
John hasten to the Tomb — They depart — Mary Mag- 
dalene remains — Our Lord appears to her — He ap- 
pears to the other women — The Jews bribe the sol- 
diers to say the body of Our Lord was stolen — 
Jesus' appearance to Peter — He appears to two dis- 
ciples on the road to Emmaus — They return to 
Jerusalem to tell the Apostles — Jesus appears to 
them — Jesus endows them with the Holy Spirit — 
The doubt and conviction of Thomas 238 

XXXII: THE ASCENSION 

The Apostles return to Galilee — They go fishing, hav- 
ing no food — They catch nothing— Jesus appears to 
them — A miraculous draught of fishes — Jesus tells 
Peter to feed His sheep — Jesus appears to them and 
others on a mountain in Galilee — "I will be with you 

- all the time" — St. Paul's testimony of Jesus' appear- 
ance to James — Jesus appears to the Apostles 
again in Jerusalem — He leads them out upon the 
road to Bethany — He blesses them and departs into 
Heaven — The joy and peace of the Apostles — The 
life of Our Lord 249 



THE LIFE OF LIVES 



"So he called a child, set it among them 
and said, 'I tell you truly, unless you turn 
and become like children, you will never get 
into the realm of heaven at all.' " 

Matt. XVIII, 2-3. 

"It is written, . . . The Lord knows the 
reasoning of the wise is futile." 

St. Paul— 1 Cor. Ill, 20. 



THE LIFE OF LIVES 

CHAPTER I 

THE JOURNEY TO BETHLEHEM 

It was a bleak winter night. For though no 
snow fell in that warm country of Judsea, yet in 
the winter season the air was cold and biting and 
chilled the bodies of the poor, who shivered as 
they made their way faster through the dark and 
narrow streets of the little village of Bethlehem. 

The evening was drawing on, and the sun was 
nearly set, as a man and a Woman came wearily 
along the Jerusalem road which led to the en- 
trance of the village. He was a tall, well-formed 
man, already arrived at middle age, with a kind 
and strong yet gentle face. He walked beside 
the Woman, who rode upon a mule, her slender 
body bent slightly forward as though she were be- 
ginning to yield to the fatigue of a long journey. 
Eighty miles they had come, indeed, along the 
toilsome road from their home village of Naza- 
reth in the pleasant country of Galilee. 

The Woman was much younger than the man, 
and her fair beauty had in it something ethereal 
19 



20 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

and angelical. There was a kind of moonlike ra- 
diance in her face. Her eyes were a deep blue, 
and their white lids drooped slightly with patient 
weariness, as the petals of a flower must close 
when the day is done. Her brow was open and 
candid like a child's, and the softly arched line 
where it met her glowing hair suggested, to the 
mind of one who looked upon her, a bright halo 
such as those that are painted above the heads of 
pictured saints. 

The hill country through which they were pass- 
ing was dreary and gray in its winter aspect. 
Large rocks lay in heaps here and there, with 
straggling groups of gray-green olive trees, of 
which many were old and had thick gnarled and 
twisted trunks. From time to time they passed 
a flock of drowsy sheep, tended by shepherds 
carrying long staffs, and wearing broad, turban- 
like caps and wide-sleeved cloaks which they drew 
closer around them against the chill of the fast- 
coming night. 

In summer the grass and wild flowers and 
balmy air made these hills more agreeable, but 
now it was but a bare and somber country through 
which the man and Woman traveled, and they 
were glad that the village of Bethlehem, whither 
they were bound, now lay before them, a group 
of low, one-storied, brownish-yellow houses, ris- 
ing on a dark sloping ridge. 



THE JOURNEY TO BETHLEHEM 21 

They had come to enroll their names in the 
great census ordered by the Syrian proconsul, 
Quirinius, for his master the Roman emperor, 
Caesar Augustus, and to be taxed, and they came 
to Bethlehem because it was the home of their 
illustrious ancestor, David, once a shepherd, then 
king of Israel, he who was poet as well as king 
and wrote the immortal Psalms. The man was 
Joseph, who was a carpenter at Nazareth, and the 
Woman was his young wife, Mary. Their lives 
were poor and obscure, and their only riches were 
faith, virtue, purity of heart. But as they passed 
humbly along the road there was something calm 
and fair and holy which seemed to accompany 
them. 

The sun had been long set when they entered 
Bethlehem, and the dark streets and houses gave 
them but a poor welcome. As best they could, 
they made their way to the village inn, to which 
they were guided by the lamp which hung from 
the middle of a rope stretched across the en- 
trance. Down the shadowy narrow street it 
shone before them like a small yellow star, and 
led them kindly to shelter. Poor as the inn was, 
it was at least a resting place, and the young 
Mary, drooping lower over the dumb beast who 
carried so willingly his precious burden, rejoiced 
to draw near. 

The inn was a small, low building of rough 



22 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

stone, built in several arches around a courtyard. 
Its only rooms for travelers were the spaces con- 
tained in the arches, which had no doors and 
therefore no privacy, opening as they did upon 
the courtyard. In this court were gathered all 
the animals belonging to the guests of the inn, 
upon which they had themselves arrived from 
various parts, or had brought laden with goods 
for traffic. There were mules, horses and camels, 
with their Oriental harness and trappings; and a 
strange odor rose from this company of beasts. 
Because of the census the number of strangers 
being unusually large, some of their animals were 
crowded into a natural limestone cave, which 
formed part of the inn, and was not unusual as a 
feature of architecture in this rocky country. 

As Joseph entered the courtyard with the re- 
tiring timidity of a stranger, leading by the 
bridle the mule upon which Mary was seated, he 
was met by the discouraging words that the inn 
was full, that every arch was occupied, and there 
was no shelter for him and his wife — unless, in- 
deed, they would sleep in the cave where the 
horses, mules and camels were already munching 
their evening food. It was the only possible 
shelter left for them. Well, it would at least 
shut out the cold, penetrating night air, and for 
his young wife Joseph knew that some place to 



THE JOURNEY TO BETHLEHEM 23 

recline and rest was immediately necessary. So 
they entered the cave with thankful hearts. 

It was dark within, but they were given a lan- 
tern, whose golden rays made fantastic shadows 
of the mules and camels in the deep brown cor- 
ners. The placid animals allowed Joseph to 
open a space for Mary in one of these corners, 
and here they spread their small carpet, and ate 
their simple meal of bread and cheese and fruit. 
No feast was ever more glorious than that in the 
shadow-veiled corner of the Bethlehem cave. 
For with it there was perfect love and perfect 
grace, and over it all the glory of what Mary and 
Joseph kept in their hearts — the marvelous Se- 
cret that was to bring such changes into the 
world. 

Before the meal Joseph had taken the harness 
and burdens from his mule, and now he placed 
hay for it in a manger, bringing it water to drink 
from a near-by spring; and all being ready, they 
prepared for such sleep as their strange circum- 
stances might afford them. The inn became 
quiet as the night lengthened, and the stars grew 
brighter and shone with a deeper radiance. The 
tired travelers slept, the horses and mules and 
camels slumbered too, and all was silent and all 
was full of brooding mystery. 



CHAPTER II 

THE SHEPHERDS AEE TOLD OF THE BIKTH 

Now about a mile from Bethlehem there was a 
plain where certain faithful shepherds were 
watching their flocks during the night, lest some 
of the foolish sheep should stray away and be 
lost, or stolen by robbers or killed by the wolves. 
The shepherds were weary from their long day- 
watch, and were half asleep, lying on the cold 
ground wrapped in their thick woolen cloaks. 
Some say there were four shepherds, and that 
their names were Acheel, Misael, Cyriacus and 
Stephanus. They were poor men, without edu- 
cation or power, humbly guarding their flocks 
as a means of earning a scanty livelihood. 

Acheel, then let us call him, kept stricter watch 
than the rest, it being his turn thus to relieve his 
comrades while they slept. He sat on one of the 
large rocks which lay here and there on the mea- 
ger pasture, and his thoughts in the majestic si- 
lence of the night rested in a vague wonder about 
Jehovah, the Creator and Father of all men and 
all things, Who had promised to send a Messiah 
— a Christ, a Savior — to the wicked and hunger- 

24 



SHEPHERDS TOLD OF THE BIRTH 25 

ing people, and the Messiah never came. When 
would He come — when would He come and re- 
deem God's promise? He knew that his people, 
and other nations farther East, expected that this 
promise would soon be fulfilled, and that He 
would send to Judaea a Savior who would be a 
mighty monarch, full of power and glory, and 
who in pomp and magnificence would put down 
the oppressors of the Jewish people, and rule the 
whole world. And the Prophets had said that 
the Messiah would come from Bethlehem, the 
City of David. 

Thinking thus Acheel, too, fell drowsy. He 
might have slept, and in so doing he might have 
lost one of his sheep, but this was not to be. For 
at that moment the poor man sat suddenly up- 
right, and looked all around him with a startled 
air. What was that? It seemed like a distant 
strain of music! But that was impossible. 
Here on the silent plain at night there could be 
no music. But while he told himself it could 
not be — that he dreamed there in the silence and 
loneliness of the night — the music came nearer. 
The night also grew brighter. The darkness 
seemed to melt away and give place to light. 
What light? Whence came it? It was still far 
from the time of dawn — and this was not the 
gray-blue light of dawn. It was rather a mel- 
low glow, as if it were reflected from a sea of 



26 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

molten gold. No sun, no moon ever shone like 
that. It was no mere shining at all — it was a 
slow, golden glow. It grew stronger, and 
Acheel put his hand before his eyes, and with a 
sudden feeling of terror such as he had never 
known in his life, he cried aloud to his comrades. 
They were already on their feet, dazed and fright- 
ened, and they, too, covered their eyes from the 
strange powerful light that now bathed them all 
and the plain immediately around them in its 
overwhelming radiance. The sheep, motionless, 
seemed turned to soft gold. Every blade of 
grass was a slim golden knife. 

As they stood, struck still as statues in their 
sudden awe, an angel, white amid the yellow 
glow, stood before them and spoke in a voice of 
grave music. And the angel said, 

"Have no fear. This is good news I am 
bringing you, news of a great joy that is meant 
for all the people. Today you have a Savior 
born in the town of David, the Lord Messiah. 
And here is a proof for you : you will find a baby 
wrapped up and lying in a stall for cattle." 1 

As the angel's voice ceased, suddenly he was 
surrounded by many rows of other angels, beings 
of celestial happiness, gleaming white as snow 
in the golden light. And all of them raised their 
voices in joyous praise of God, singing, 

*Luke 11, 10-12. 



SHEPHERDS TOLD OF THE BIRTH 27 

"Glory to God in high heaven, and peace on 
earth for men whom he favors." 

The music rolled in waves of richest harmony ; 
it seemed to fill and surround the whole earth 
with a pure flood of melody; it seemed to draw 
the souls of the shepherds from their bodies, and 
to raise and float them in such an ecstasy of joy 
as they had never conceived. They seemed to 
become one with the angels, and to be drowned 
in the light and the sound which caused their frail 
senses to reel and almost leave them. Their joy 
was nigh to become suffering, for their human 
bodies were not able to contain it. But as they 
strove thus, the music grew less, the golden glow 
diminished — music and light lessened slowly, 
faded, and gradually ceased. Then the shep- 
herds, overcome by their terror and joy, fell down 
with their faces to the earth. 

For some time they lay thus without moving. 
Then Acheel ventured to raise his head timidly, 
and peer around into the quiet night. All was 
silent and exactly as it was before the heavenly 
visitation. The scene was fair and full of peace. 
The sheep, huddled together for warmth, seemed 
to sleep ; there was not a breath of wind, and the 
stars gleamed with an unearthly light. 

The three other shepherds raised their heads 
also, half in fright and half in awe-struck curios- 
ity, and all looked questioningly at one another, 



28 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

as if they were fain to speak but feared to break 
the enchanted silence. In their ears still echoed 
the strains of that heaven-born music, and they 
were not yet recovered from the spell of it. At 
length Acheel arose and said, 

"Let us be off to Bethlehem to see this thing 
that the Lord has told us of." 2 

So, forgetting their flocks and everything but 
the startling revelation of the angel, with hearts 
beating fast with hope and wonder, they hastily 
made their way along the cold starlit road to 
Bethlehem. 

As the angel had said they would find the Babe 
lying in a stall for cattle, they directed their steps 
to the inn where such a stall would surely be 
found. The lantern which hung in the middle of 
the rope across the entrance of the inn guided 
them, and they hastened within, looking guard- 
edly about them as they passed through the court- 
yard where the animals were tethered. But they 
saw no baby there, and they went farther, and 
finally into the brown shadowy cave, which was 
made less obscure than the dark courtyard by the 
rays of light which shone from one of its corners. 
Pushing gently aside the horses and mules and 
camels, which were all awake but quiet as if they 
were listening, the shepherds came to the place 

'Luke 11, 15. 



SHEPHERDS TOLD OF THE BIRTH 29 

of light. And when they saw Mary and Joseph, 
silent but with radiant faces, and in the rude 
manger between them a Babe, placid and aware, 
who seemed to be full of a strong-shining light 
which illuminated the faces of those who looked 
upon Him, they knelt down and prayed and were 
full of wonder and thankfulness. 

The Baby looked calmly at them, and as He 
looked the hearts of the poor men leapt in their 
bosoms, and they went out and began to proclaim 
the Birth of the long expected Messiah and Sav- 
ior to the sleeping village, so that people were 
awakened and amazed at what they heard. 
When the shepherds told of the angel's visit while 
they guarded their flocks, and of his wonderful 
words, and of the heavenly choirs that sang in 
the night, and the light that glorified the dark 
plain, they marveled more and more, and spoke 
to one another in awe. After the shepherds had 
thus made the whole village acquainted with 
these signs and wonders, they returned to the 
Babe in the manger to worship Him, and passed 
the remainder of the night in praising God and 
talking over the glorious things they had seen. 

When by the bleak dawn light they returned to 
their flocks, not one sheep had strayed away, but 
they, like the mules, the horses and camels in the 
holy cave, were awake and seemed to be watching 
and listening. 



CHAPTER III 

WHY THE MESSIAH WAS EXPECTED 

We must now try to understand why the Jew- 
ish people, like these shepherds, longed so ear- 
nestly for a Savior, a Messiah. They were proud, 
headstrong, bent upon having their own way, and 
though they often met with the most dreadful 
misfortunes, they could not learn submission to 
the will of God and full obedience to Him. They 
had received God's sacred commandments — the 
Ten Commandments — from the hands of their 
great prophet Moses, and they were constantly 
breaking them in one way or another. Yet we 
should remember that when all the nations were 
worshiping idols and false gods, the Jews believed 
in one God only, Jehovah ; and though there were 
some among them who turned aside from the 
right way and set up idols to worship and pray 
to, yet as a race they upheld, and passed on to us, 
the faith in the one true God. That is indeed a 
great debt we owe to them. We must also re- 
member, in thinking of them harshly, as we may 
when we read in this story of the cruel and blas- 
phemous acts some of them committed, and of 

30 



THE MESSIAH WAS EXPECTED 31 

their final unspeakable deed of sin — we must re- 
member that they had not known Jesus as we 
know Him, and had not inherited the inestimable 
advantage of centuries of faith in Him and love 
for Him, as we have done. 

The country of the Jews was called Palestine, 
and its chief city Jerusalem. It was divided into 
provinces — Judeea, Samaria, Galilee and the ter- 
ritory East of the Jordan — and the whole had 
been conquered by the then strongest nation of 
the world, the Romans, that wonderful people 
whose empire was so vast that to this day we find 
their ruins in many countries — Great Britain, 
France, Spain, Germany, and North Africa. To 
the Jews it was a heart-rending misfortune to be 
a conquered people, to be subject to the haughty 
Roman empire. For the Jews, too, were equally 
haughty, stiffly set in their own ways, and ar- 
dently devoted to their religion and its innumer- 
able and frequently trifling and finical customs. 
It was a religion of the body rather than the 
spirit ; and if you will keep this in mind, you will 
understand our narrative better. 

The Jews then were unhappy because they 
were full of sin, and because they were under 
the rule of a great and mighty but still idolatrous 
and cruet nation, Rome. It is not unnat- 
ural that they longed for a deliverer — some con- 
quering king who would set them free, and make 



32 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

them rich and powerful, putting their enemies 
forever under their feet. Their hearts were not 
full of love and mercy, but of revenge and cru- 
elty. Their prophets had said for hundreds of 
years past that a Savior would come to them, 
but they saw him in their imaginations only as a 
conquering warrior or king. And it was not 
only the Jews who looked for this Messiah. 1 
Other nations, having, like them, a consciousness 
of sin and the need of help from some power 
higher than themselves, shared this feeling. 
Throughout most of the world, historians tell us, 
there was at that time the strange and but half- 
conscious expectation of a Deliverer, even among 
the Romans and Greeks who believed in a great 
number of gods, whose mythology has added in- 
terest to art and literature for many ages. But 
these were only imaginary gods whose images 
they worshiped, and who were very much like 
mere men and women and not good men and wo- 
men either, and their influence over men's minds 
had begun to wane. 

To illustrate this, there is an interesting legend 
of the death of Pan, the Greek god of pastures, 
flocks and forests, who died, we are told by 
Plutarch, in the days of the wicked Roman em- 

J The word Messiah is Hebrew, the Jewish language, and means 
One who is Anointed and set apart for His high office of Prophet, 
Priest or King. The word Christ is Greek, and has the same mean- 
ing as Messiah. 



THE MESSIAH WAS EXPECTED 33 

peror Tiberius. Now Tiberius reigned over the 
Roman empire, and therefore over Palestine, 
during most of the earthly life of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, and it is supposed that Pan died just as 
Jesus was born : which is to say that these heathen 
myths and false gods did actually vanish before 
the coming of the Truth. 

This legend of Pan's death tells how a ship, 
passing the island of Corfu — which lies near 
Greece in the Ionian Sea — was suddenly be- 
calmed. The helmsman, who was an Egyptian 
named Thamnus, heard his name called in the 
quiet air. Startled, he tried to discover whence 
the voice came. It seemed to float out from the 
islands of the Echinades, and it told him that 
when he should pass a place known as Palodes, 
he should tell the people that the great god Pan 
was dead. Thamnus did so, and immediately all 
the air seemed full of mysterious voices, sighing 
and lamenting, so that everyone was amazed at 
the sounds. 

The only truth to be found in this legend is 
that the false gods of the heathen myths were 
really dying and disappearing from the world, 
where their worship had encouraged a great deal 
of wickedness, and were giving place to the won- 
derful new era of Christianity. But this era was 
now only in its beginning, and much had to 
happen — much sacrifice and suffering — before it 



.34 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

could help and redeem the world. So at this 
time, when Pan's death was proclaimed, there 
was something, as we say, in the very air — many 
mysterious voices speaking to men's souls and 
telling them not of death but of Life — of the 
coming of One who would bear them up and save 
them. And the Jews believed this more than any 
other nation, because the message had been sent 
directly to them through the voices of their great 
prophets- — Isaiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Micah and 
the others. Some men, confused perhaps by the 
ardent wishes of the people and the tense expec- 
tation of the times, believed themselves to be the 
Messiah Himself, and seriously made this an- 
nouncement. But they proved to be merely men, 
and are interesting to us only as showing the ex- 
cited condition of people's minds at that time. 
All these signs pointed straight to the great event 
that was actually coming — had come, indeed, as 
we have already learned, in the strangely poor 
and humble birth of our Lord Jesus Christ at 
Bethlehem. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE WISE MEN AND HEROD 

It was not surprising therefore that one day, 
soon after the birth of the Holy Babe, there 
should appear in the great city of Jerusalem 
three strangers who had traveled hither from the 
East, and who said that they had come to wor- 
ship the new-born King of the Jews, whose birth 
had been announced to them by a brilliant star 
in the eastern heavens which had guided and was 
still guiding their search. These impressive 
strangers came riding on stately and richly capar- 
isoned camels, and were themselves finely clothed, 
and wore rings of sard or cornelian or jasper. 
Some have said they were kings, but it is believed 
that they were Wise Men, learned in astrology, 
the science of understanding the present and fore- 
telling the future by a study of the stars, which 
was much practiced in those days. 

When they reached Jerusalem the Wise Men 
told various people about their j ourney : how they 
had seen the luminous star in the East, and knew 
that it announced the birth of a great King of 
the Jews, a Messiah; how they had put every- 

35 



36 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

thing aside to follow it, in order that they might 
go and pay their homage to the new King, and 
how they had journeyed for long, weary days, 
the beautiful star ever going before and leading 
the way. As one person told another this won- 
derful piece of news, it soon reached the king in 
his palace. 

This king was the wicked Herod the Great, a 
man of remarkable character, but without heart 
and without love for God. He was an Iduma?an 
who reigned over the Jews' country under the 
authority of the Roman emperor. The Jews of 
Judaea, over whom he ruled, hated him as a 
heathen, a cruel man, and an alien who did not 
understand them or their religion of the one true 
God, and who had no sympathy with the numer- 
ous rites, ceremonies and customs of all sorts 
which were so dear to them. 

Herod, already an aged man, knew that the 
people neither respected nor loved him, and being 
in constant fear of insurrection or rebellion 
among them, and knowing that his master, the 
Roman emperor, would be displeased if the peace 
were broken and trouble should come in Judaea, 
he sat very uneasily on his throne in Jerusalem. 
He was called "the Great" because he had accom- 
plished many public works during his long reign. 
He had rid the province of Galilee of robbers, 



THE WISE MEN AND HEROD 37 

which was a task of great difficulty, as these rob- 
bers lived in the many rocky caves of the country, 
and were not easily discovered. He had built an 
aqueduct, gymnasiums, theaters, baths, colon- 
nades, and many heathen temples, some of them 
being temples to the Roman emperor. He gave 
prizes for the public games, and a permanent 
endowment to the Olympian games which pre- 
served them for all time. Also, he made Jeru- 
salem one of the strongest fortified cities in Asia. 
But the Jews did not, could not feel any grati- 
tude for these material benefits because Herod 
was cruel to them spiritually, would not respect 
their religion or their peculiar morals, and pun- 
ished them with death — by decapitation and even 
burning alive — on many occasions when they 
were only defending their religion from his hea- 
then insults. But, strangely enough, by his own 
wicked followers, called Herodians, he himself 
was considered to be a "Messiah," and in that 
supposed capacity he had rebuilt the Jews' most 
holy and sacred of churches known as the Temple 
of Jerusalem. This work he performed in a 
magnificent manner. In his fierce ambition and 
self-glorification, he declared that the present 
Temple was sixty cubits lower than Solomon's 
had been (of which wonderful ancient building 
we read in the Old Testament), and he desired 



38 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

to rebuild it to sl height equal to that of Solo- 
mon's, or even higher. 1 

Colossal blocks of stone were brought for this 
rebuilding, twenty feet long and four feet high — 
some accounts say they were forty cubits long 
and ten cubits high — and white marble was 
brought with the greatest difficulty from distant 
places, from Arabia and the Grecian islands. 
Year after year the work went on, performed by 
ten thousand workmen and a thousand wagoners. 
But the Jews were so fearful lest there should be 
some violation, some disrespect of their holy Tem- 
ple, that Herod was obliged to have the inner 
sanctuary — the altar and its surroundings, and 
the forecourt of the priests — built only by the 
priests themselves. A thousand of them were 
trained in the trades of carpenters and masons 
for this purpose. When after many years the 
great work was completed, fourteen years before 
the birth of Christ, three hundred oxen were sac- 
rificed at the consecration, which enables us to 
imagine the enormous size of its courts. 

Though even the Jews were obliged to ac- 
knowledge the beauty and grandeur of the re- 
built Temple, Herod outraged their feelings by 
placing a Roman eagle above the principal gate ! 
To the Jews this was an insult to their one true 

1 A cubit is as long as the forearm from the elbow to the end 
°f the middle finger, usually equaling one foot and a half. 



THE WISE MEN AND HEROD 39 

God, and it led to open conflicts between king 
and people, and to tragical events such as the 
burning alive of two teachers, and the beheading 
of forty other men. Thus it was that all that 
Herod did exasperated, irritated or infuriated 
the Jews. His life, in fact, was full of jealous 
fear and hatred, within his own family, and with- 
out among the people. Consequently, when he 
heard that three Wise Men from the East had 
come to Jerusalem on their way to find a new- 
born King of the Jews, having been led by a 
star, he was filled with new alarm. He called 
together all the Chief Priests and Scribes 2 and 
asked them where, according to the prophets, 
should Christ, the Messiah, be born. They said, 
"In Bethlehem of Judasa." 

Then Herod dismissed them, greatly troubled 
because he feared the rivalry of a new King of the 
Jews, and privately sent for the Wise Men that 
they might come before him in his palace and tell 
him more of this curious story. So the three 
Wise Men went solemnly before the king, and 
gave again an account of their star-led journey. 
We can imagine them there, clad in their long 
robes embroidered with strange devices, wearing 
wide turbans, giving this information to the 
crafty king. Herod pretended to be full of sym- 

2 The Scribes were the special students, writers and teachers 
of the law, the lawyers. 



40 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

pathetic interest and respect for this new-born 
"King." He asked them many questions, when 
and how the star appeared, and everything con- 
cerning their travels. Then he commanded them 
to continue their journey to Bethlehem, and to 
"search diligently" for the young Child, and to 
return afterwards and tell him all that they had 
learned concerning Him, where and what He 
was, that he, too, might then go and worship 
Him. 

So they left the powerful king in his luxurious 
palace, with his innumerable lackeys and flat- 
terers, and calmly pursued their way in search of 
the Holy Child, carrying with them always, 
bound upon their camels, the gifts of costly gold, 
frankincense and myrrh which they had brought 
all this long distance to offer, lovingly and hum- 
bly, to Him, the true King. Then they searched 
the heavens and beheld again their star in the 
East, and they followed it. 

After they had traveled a while the night drew 
on, and the star grew more and more bright. It 
went before them until it reached the village of 
Bethlehem, and there it hung in the dark rich 
sky like a beautiful sparkling lamp, and moved 
no more. Then the Wise Men knew that the 
Babe indeed lay at Bethlehem, and they rejoiced. 

What a contrast between the magnificence of 
Herod's palace, with its stately halls, colonnades, 



THE WISE MEN AND HEROD 41 

baths, its furniture of gold and silver, which they 
had just left, and the poor little inn where they 
now found the new-born King! Hither came 
the Wise Men in great joy, and finding the Babe 
they fell to the ground and worshiped Him. 
Then they took the packs from their camels and 
opened them, and gave the Child the gifts of gold, 
frankincense and myrrh, and they were filled 
with a great happiness. 

That night the Wise Men had a dream. In 
this dream they were warned that they must not 
go back to King Herod, nor tell him where they 
had found the Child. So they returned to their 
own homes by another road, full of gladness at 
the success of their long journey. 



CHAPTER V 

THE PRESENTATION AND FLIGHT 

We must now return to the humble inn at 
Bethlehem, and understand what had been pass- 
ing there. But to do that we must go back still 
further to the holy day when Mary was told that 
a Divine Son would be born to her. 

The Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke tell 
us that before Mary was married to Joseph an 
angel came and said that, while still a virgin, she 
would bear a Child who should be the Son of 
God; that He should be called Jesus, a name 
meaning Salvation; that He should save His peo- 
ple from their sins, and that of His kingdom 
there should be no end. 

Now Joseph, who was betrothed to Mary, was 
very much troubled by these words of the angel, 
and sat brooding on what this strange mystery 
might mean, that his beautiful maiden Mary 
should become a mother before the time. So, 
weary with his sorrow and his troubled thinking, 
he fell asleep. And in that sleep an angel came 
to him and said, "Joseph, son of David, fear not 
to take Mary your wife home, for what is begot - 

42 



PRESENTATION AND FLIGHT 43 

ten in her comes from the Holy Spirit" — the 
Spirit of God. 

Then Joseph awoke, happy and at peace, and 
marveling at this wonderful thing which had 
come to them, and took Mary home to care for 
her with reverence and tenderness until the divine 
Child should be born. 

You already know how after some time they 
came to Bethlehem, and that in the lowly inn 
Jesus was born, illuminating with His infant 
glory all those who stood near Him. 

Eight days after His birth the Child was cir- 
cumcised: a religious ceremony peculiar to the 
Jews, for Mary and Joseph of course were pious 
and devout people, and would fulfill every com- 
mand of the law of their religion. 

Then about thirty -three days later, when what 
the Jews called the purification of the Mother 
was completed, Mary and Joseph set forth from 
Bethlehem to Jerusalem, six miles distant, to 
present the Child to God in the great Temple, 
according to the Jewish custom that every first- 
born male child belonged to Jehovah, and should 
be presented to Him in His Temple. But in 
this instance the Presentation had a far more 
holy significance. 

Along the road to Jerusalem, then, the Holy 
Family made their way. As they advanced the 
olive, chestnut, walnut and palm trees increased 



44 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

in number. Many fig trees too were planted by 
the roadside, as it was believed that dust made 
them grow better. These belonged to the public, 
and anyone might pick and eat their fruit in its 
season. Thus the country became more and 
more agreeable, and soon they were passing the 
many gardens with which Jerusalem was at that 
time surrounded. 

The city itself, with its ascending terraces cov- 
ered with buildings of stone, castles, towers and 
high massive walls, looked, as indeed it was, like 
a gloomy and powerful fortress; but at its top, 
gleaming with snowy marble and ruddy gold, the 
Temple rose like a superb and glowing diadem. 

Let us imagine the impressive spectacle of this 
Church to which Mary and Joseph were now 
bringing the Child for His Presentation. It 
consisted of many buildings and courts and ter- 
races rising upward on the hill, and culminating 
at the summit in the Temple-House itself, in 
which was the Holy of Holies where God's Spirit 
was believed to be constantly present. This 
Temple-House was built of white marble, with 
a flat roof studded with innumerable golden 
spikes from which the sun was brilliantly re- 
flected. In front of the Temple-House was a 
portico, and the entrance was heavily gilded, the 
doors standing open, but the sacred interior hid- 
den by a curtain brought from Babylon, and 



PRESENTATION AND FLIGHT 45 

woven of many colors. Above the doorway were 
carved in gold magnificent clusters of grapes, 
each cluster being of the size of a man. Col- 
umns and double cloisters, rich mosaics, red and 
white marbles, gates of gold, silver and the still 
more valuable Corinthian brass combined to form 
a scene of the richest Oriental luxuriance. The 
topmost Temple-House, of dazzling gold and 
white, could be seen for many miles around, and 
devout Jews turned toward it when they prayed. 
Below this there were the inner courts and outer 
courts, and every necessary place for the lambs, 
kids and oxen brought by the people to be sacri- 
ficed after the ancient Jewish custom. 

There were rooms for wood for the great fires, 
for the offal which would remain after such im- 
mense offerings of flesh ; there were laundries for 
the constant washing of garments and of vessels 
required by the law, there were guard-rooms, a 
well-house — everything, in short, for use in a 
Temple so vast and so full of religious activ- 
ity that it is related no less than twenty thou- 
sand priests were employed in serving its many 
altars and conducting its endless ceremonies. 

Three times a day trumpets were blown — as 
Christian churches ring their bells — three blasts 
when the gates were opened, nine when the morn- 
ing sacrifice began, and nine at the sacrifice of 
the evening. The Temple was always thronged 



46 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

with pious Jews, offering sacrifices, bringing 
thank-offerings for relief from illness or other 
woes, praying and performing numerous reli- 
gious rites. 

At the great feasts of the Dedication, of Tab- 
ernacles, of the Passover, people thronged to 
Jerusalem from every part of the country. The 
Jewish historian Josephus says that at some of 
the feasts as many as three million strangers 
came to Jerusalem. We can imagine then, the 
extraordinarily crowded streets, and can under- 
stand how Our Lord Jesus Christ in His boyhood 
was once thought to be lost in those crowds. 

During certain religious feasts there were 
dances by torchlight in one of the courts, dances 
which lasted all through the night and were en- 
livened by the music of harps, dulcimers, timbals 
and trumpets, the entire Temple being illumi- 
nated with great torches and cressets. There 
were processions in which the fruit and animals 
to be offered as sacrifices were carried in baskets, 
the bullock for the peace-offering walking ahead, 
his proud horns gilded and decorated with an 
olive wreath, and all marching to the music of 
pipes. 

What became of all the living creatures that 
were sacrificed in the Temple ? Those parts con- 
sidered by the Jews "unclean" were either entire- 
ly consumed on the smoking altars, or cast aside, 



PRESENTATION AND FLIGHT 47 

while the remainder or "clean" parts were eaten 
by the priests and the people according to the va- 
rious rites and customs in each case. We 
see, therefore, how much materialism — the serv- 
ice of mere bodily things and thoughts — entered 
into the Jews' religion, even though they had the 
true and spiritual idea of worshiping one God, 
and not idols, and so we shall understand better 
what is to follow in our story. 

To this wonderful Temple, then, Mary and 
Joseph brought the Child. According to the 
law they should have offered a lamb as a burnt 
offering, and in addition a young pigeon or turtle 
dove as a sin offering, but probably they were too 
poor at the time to afford such costly gifts, and 
Mary only offered, as the law permitted under 
such circumstances, two doves. 

When they had done this, and complied with 
all the other religious requirements of the Pres- 
entation, two remarkable incidents occurred. A 
man whose name was Simeon entered the Temple 
to pray. He was a godly man who believed that 
before he should die he should see the Messiah. 
Looking about him, he perceived Mary and 
Joseph and the Child. Instantly, by some spir- 
itual insight, he recognized the Infant Jesus, and 
taking Him joyfully in his arms, he "blessed 
God, and said, 'Now, Master, thou canst let thy 
servant go, and go in peace, as thou didst prom- 



48 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

ise ; for mine eyes have seen thy saving power.' " 
Then Simeon blessed them, all three, and went 
away rejoicing, leaving Mary and Joseph full of 
surprise that he should have known the Child. 
After Simeon had departed, an aged widow 
named Hannah, who was about eighty-four years 
old, and was a prophetess passing all her time in 
the Temple fasting and praying, also came to 
them and immediately knew the Child, and gave 
thanks to God, telling all who expected Him that 
the great event had come — she had seen the Mes- 
siah! 

After this Joseph was again visited in a dream 
by "the angel of the Lord," who warned him that 
the Child was in danger from King Herod, and 
that he must take Him and his Mother into 
Egypt and remain there until the angel should 
return and bring him word. Then Joseph was 
filled with fear for the Child, and, Egypt being 
near at the South, he took the Mother and Child 
there in the night, and no one might see them or 
know their hiding-place, and there they remained 
in safety until Herod's death. 

In the meanwhile, Herod had waited in vain 
for the return of the three Wise Men from Beth- 
lehem. Realizing at length that they had dared 
to disobey him and would not come, and not 
knowing where the Child was whose rivalry he 
feared in the loyalty of the people, Herod became 



PRESENTATION AND FLIGHT 49 

violently enraged. He gave orders that all the 
young children of two years old and less, who 
were to be found in Bethlehem and the surround- 
ing country, should be mercilessly slain. This 
tyrannical act of a heartless king is known in his- 
tory as the Massacre of the Innocents. 

Herod the Great was now about seventy years 
old, and had reigned thirty-seven years — years of 
wickedness, of sinful intrigue and wretched un- 
happiness. His life of vice and sin had resulted 
in partial madness. Furthermore, historians tell 
us that his body was wrecked by a horrible dis- 
ease which caused him constant suffering, and 
made him offensive to all those who came near 
him. To him life had become so unbearable that 
one day, in his last illness, he asked for an apple, 
with a knife to cut it, and while for a moment the 
eyes of his attendants were not upon him, he at- 
tempted to put an end to his misery by thrusting 
the knife into his heart. But in this desperate 
action he did not succeed. He was then taken to 
the hot sulphur baths of Callirhoe as a last resort 
to lessen his sufferings, but this severe treatment 
only made him worse. He ordered that he 
should be carried to the beautiful city of roses, 
Jericho, that he might end his miserable days 
there. 

But even in the midst of such suffering he had 
enough wicked energy to command the execution 



50 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

of his son Antipater, who had attempted to poi- 
son him. This was the third son whom this un- 
natural father had put to death. His sons, you 
must remember, were not all children of the same 
mother, for Herod had several wives as well as 
a harem. 

When at last this terrible man was really dy- 
ing, he heard the crowds in the streets rejoicing 
openly that the Jewish people were soon to be 
rid of him, the "blood-thirsty monster." This so 
angered him that even in his last moments he had 
the strength to plot murder. He commanded 
that all the chief men of the cities of Judasa should 
be summoned to Jericho, that they should be 
treacherously locked in the vast hippodrome of 
the city, and that at the moment of his death they 
should all be killed. In this way he thought to 
prevent the people from rejoicing over his own 
death. This was the last incredibly cruel action 
of Herod "the Great," for his death immediately 
followed. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE RETURN TO NAZARETH 

Now at the time of Herod's death, Joseph, liv- 
ing quietly in Egypt with Mary and the Child, 
was once more visited by an angel of the Lord in 
a dream. And the angel said, "Rise, take the 
child and his mother, and go to the land of 
Israel: for those who sought the child's life are 
dead." 

So Joseph took Mary and the Child back into 
Israel — as the country of the Jews was called — in 
obedience to the angel, and they returned to their 
own beloved village of Nazareth in the province 
of Galilee. There they lived for many years, 
and that is why our Lord Jesus Christ is often 
spoken of as "the Nazarene." 

Let us see now what manner of life was His — 
He who was the Son of God, sent to this earth to 
live a human life just as we do. It was not cus- 
tomary among the Jews to write biographies of 
people, as writers do now, telling all the details 
of their lives. Moreover, there was not so much 
interest in children and childhood then as there 
began to be after Our Lord showed the people 

51 



52 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

how much He loved children, and that childhood 
is so pure and true that we must all become as 
little children — be as pure and true as they are — 
if we wish to enter into the kingdom of Heaven. 
So, unfortunately, there is scarcely anything 
written about the youth of Jesus in the Gospels, 
which treat chiefly of the last three and a half 
years of His life when He had begun actively to 
teach and preach. But before that time He had 
lived nearly thirty years in Nazareth. What did 
He do, how did He live? 

We can leam much about His life from our 
knowledge of the lives of the Nazarenes at that 
time, and even now, for in Eastern lands there is 
but little change from century to century; and 
many historians have gathered much enlightening 
information. We know, therefore, that the chil- 
dren of Nazareth wear red garments — kaftans — 
girdled at the waist and having very long sleeves ; 
or brightly colored tunics made of cloth or silk, 
and belted with a sash of several colors. Some- 
times they wear over these a blue or white jacket, 
so that their appearance is gay and Oriental. 
According to the custom of the country, their 
little shoes or sandals are taken off before they 
enter the house. This is done in order to keep 
clean and immaculate the mats on which they say 
their prayers. 

The houses in the village of Nazareth are white, 



THE RETURN TO NAZARETH 53 

and generally of stone, with one or two stories, 
and flat roofs where the people often sit to enjoy 
the coolness of the evening. Within the houses 
you find the mats lying near the walls, and a 
wooden chest painted in colors to hold books or 
other family belongings and treasures. Quilts, 
used as beds, made of vividly colored material, are 
laid on a shelf which runs around the wall, and 
holds also the bowls and pitchers of earthenware 
in everyday use. From the center of the ceiling 
hangs a lamp. Near the door stand large red 
clay water jars, which hold the water for daily 
need, and in the spouts green leaves and twigs 
are thrust to keep the water cool. 

The little town is plentifully shaded with fig, 
orange, olive and pomegranate trees, and the sim- 
ple houses are beautified by vines. There are 
birds in the quiet gardens, murmuring doves, the 
hoopoe, and the blue roller-bird which is colored 
like a sapphire and is seen everywhere in Pales- 
tine. There is a richly flowing fountain, and va- 
rious wells where the women of the village draw 
their water, carrying it home on their heads or 
shoulders in graceful vessels of earthenware. 
The fountain is still called "The Virgin's Foun- 
tain" in memory of the Mother of Jesus, who is 
said to have carried its bright water home when 
our Lord was a little child. 

The food of the Nazarenes is of the simplest 



54 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

kind — a bowl of rice and meat and some stewed 
fruit comprise the usual diet. The food is served 
on a tray set upon a painted wooden stool in the 
middle of the room. Before the meal, and after 
it, a brass bowl and pitcher are brought by the 
servant, if there is one, or by the youngest child, 
and water is poured over each one's hands. 

In such a house, and living in the humblest 
circumstances, did Jesus grow as a child; and 
there we can imagine Him, gentle, patient, lov- 
ing. For though He was divine, He bore our 
human life just as we bear it ourselves, that He 
might be in perfect sympathy with all our temp- 
tations and weaknesses, and that He could show 
us, as He did, how temptation and weakness can 
be overcome. 

So we can picture His obscure but happy child- 
hood in Nazareth — that He loved, probably, to 
play about in Joseph's carpenter shop, with its 
sweet-smelling chips and shavings, its saws, 
planes, wrenches, in use or waiting their turn for 
usefulness, a carpenter's bench to work on, 
planks standing against the wall ready to be 
made into tables, or chairs, or chests, or whatever 
was required, a pot of glue, and perhaps a fin- 
ished table or chest awaiting its new owner. 
Every boy would enjoy such an interesting 
place; so Jesus, being in every way healthy and 
normal, must have liked it also. It is probable 



THE RETURN TO NAZARETH 55 

that He helped Joseph in whatever boyish way 
He could, and that He helped His Mother Mary 
also with her work of setting the house in order. 

We know very well that Jesus was a thought- 
ful and studious boy, too, who cared much for 
His books and the wisdom He could gather from 
them. This we know because when He began to 
teach He showed a thorough knowledge of the 
Jewish law and of the Holy Scriptures — our 
Old Testament — which contained the past his- 
tory of the Jews and all the sayings of their 
great prophets. He went to Church, also — the 
synagogue, as the Jews called it — and once in 
His boyhood He did a wonderful thing there, 
which is told later on. 

He must have loved this beautiful land where, 
for thirty years, He lived nearly all His earthly 
life. All around Nazareth the scenery is very 
picturesque. The fields and gardens are sepa- 
rated by hedges of cactus, and the whole country 
is green and full of light and cheerfulness. Even 
the shepherd boys are dressed in bright colors. 
Gay flowers bloom in spring along the borders 
of the waving cornfields, and fragrant thyme 
grows on the hillside where the village lies. 
From this hill He could see the beautiful plain 
of Jezreel, with its feathery palms and olives. 

It is probable that the boy Jesus was inclined 
sometimes to be alone and thoughtful, because 



56 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

His later development would seem to indicate it ; 
for, as a man, He constantly went into the coun- 
try seeking nature's blessed silence, and beauty, 
and solitude. Perhaps it was this pensiveness 
and loneliness which caused Him to be misunder- 
stood by His relatives, which we learn from cer- 
tain later incidents in the Gospels. This must 
have taught Him to be patient and loving, and 
helped to prepare Him for the great misunder- 
standing to which He was to be subjected in 
future years, and to which He was to sacrifice 
His life. But all that the Gospels tell us liter- 
ally of His growth as a child we find in these 
two beautiful verses of St. Luke : 

"And the child grew and became strong; he 
was filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was 
on him." * 

"And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature, 
and in favor with God and man." 2 

1 Luke ii, 40. 
* Luke ii, 52. 



CHAPTER VII 

JESUS GOES TO JERUSALEM 

Children in Oriental countries develop earlier 
than in our western lands. At the age of twelve 
a boy began to learn whatever trade he intended 
to live by, and while before that time he was call- 
ed "little," after twelve years he was treated more 
as a grown-up person, and called "a son of the 
Law." Until he was twelve his parents could 
sell him as a slave if they wished to, because that 
was the custom of their time, but after that age it 
was forbidden. And now we shall see what hap- 
pened on Jesus' first journey to Jerusalem when 
He was twelve years old, and can judge what 
manner of child He was. 

It was the time of the great springtime Feast 
of the Passover at Jerusalem, when hundreds of 
thousands of pilgrims gathered there from all 
parts of Palestine, in order to offer their sacrifices 
in the Temple, and to participate in all the reli- 
gious ceremonies of the feast-days. Although 
Jerusalem was eighty Roman miles * from Naza- 
reth, and the journey would have to be made 

'A Roman mile was about 1620 English yards. 
57 



58 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

laboriously on camels, mules and asses, or on 
foot, Jesus' parents prepared piously to make 
this pilgrimage, according to their yearly habits. 

On the whole it must have been a happy jour- 
ney, for the Jewish people were always musical, 
and they beguiled the way with drums and pipes 
and timbrels (which resemble tambourines) and 
harps, or stopped to rest in the shady gardens by 
the wayside, eating dates and melons for their 
refreshment, and drinking the cool water from 
every well they passed. A description of their 
cheerful journey reminds us in a certain way of 
the Canterbury pilgrimages in England, which 
began in the thirteenth century, and are so well 
portrayed by the poet Chaucer. 

We can imagine the natural delight of the boy 
Jesus in such a journey, and how it must have 
been mingled in Him with His infinitely deeper 
consciousness of the religious nature of the pil- 
grim's joy. And when they came at last in 
sight of Jerusalem, and He caught His first 
glimpse of the great frowning fortified city, and 
towering above it on the hill the magnificent Tem- 
ple with its gleaming marble pillars and golden 
roof, and thought that it was the Temple of the 
great Jehovah, He who was also His loving Fa- 
ther in Heaven, His young heart must have leapt 
with holiest emotion. 

They probably camped outside Jerusalem 



JESUS GOES TO JERUSALEM 59 

after the custom of strangers, building tempo- 
rary shelters for themselves of matting and 
boughs, for the city could not accommodate the 
nearly three million visitors who usually came to 
the Passover ; and when they entered the densely 
thronged streets, and made their way slowly and 
with much difficulty to the Temple, the bustle 
and excitement of the crowds of Jews, of Greeks, 
of Phoenicians, of Romans, must have seemed 
strange indeed to these quiet village people. At 
the Temple they made their obligatory offering 
of a Paschal lamb, and a week was then passed in 
attending the services of the Temple, and listen- 
ing to the discourses of the Rabbis and other 
learned preachers and teachers of the people. 
Then they started on their homeward journey. 

Now when Mary and Joseph had been a day's 
journey on the road leading back to Nazareth, 
they suddenly discovered that Jesus was not with 
them, and passed a day "searching for him among 
their kinsfolk and acquaintances." But no one 
had seen Him or knew where He was. So they 
were obliged to turn back again to Jerusalem to 
seek Him. But what a task, to find a child 
of twelve years among those multitudes of 
people! How anxious they must have been, 
and how self -reproachful at not having guarded 
Him more watchfully. But probably His 
serious and responsible character, even at that 



60 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

age, had made them trust Him more than 
usual — and in truth their trust was not misplaced. 
For after a distracted search of three days they 
found Him safe and happy in His beloved Tem- 
ple, His Father's house, "seated among the teach- 
ers" (that is, the religious teachers) "listening to 
them, and asking them questions, till all his hear- 
ers were amazed at the intelligence of his own 
answers." x 

His parents were astonished to find Him there. 
His Mother rebuked Him gently for having 
caused them so much fear and worry, and to her 
He made this wonderful reply: 

" 'Why did you look for me?' he said, 'Did you 
not know I had to be at my Father's house?' " 2 

But his poor parents did not understand ex- 
actly what He meant, though St. Luke tells us 
that "his mother treasured up everything in her 
heart." This is not surprising. Even though 
they knew that Jesus had come to Mary by a 
miracle, still how hard it would be to understand, 
to realize, that they were cherishing the Son of 
God as if He were only a little human child ! 

But it is very plain that Jesus knew His own 
being and destiny, and that He had already be- 
gun to prepare Himself for His work here on 
earth. Yet though He knew this, He behaved 

*Luke ii, 47. 
1 Luke ii, 49. 



JESUS GOES TO JERUSALEM 61 

now as He did through all His earthly life — He 
subjected His own will to what was right and of 
lawful importance. He left the beautiful Tem- 
ple, and the wise men to whom He longed to lis- 
ten, and went quietly home to Nazareth with His 
Mother and Joseph, and obeyed them. 

There the tranquil daily life went on as before, 
Jesus working with Joseph at the carpenter's 
bench, studying the Holy Scriptures, the burn- 
ing words of the great prophets, the books of 
Jewish Law, the Psalms of David; learning He- 
brew, which was even then a dead language — 
that is, was no longer in current use — and learn- 
ing Greek, which was spoken in much of the sur- 
rounding country. The common language of 
His people was Aramaic, an ancient Syrian 
tongue also used by the Chaldeans, and this was 
the language or dialect in which Jesus generally 
spoke. The Gospels, which tell us, strictly speak- 
ing, all that we know of our Lord's life, were 
originally written in Greek. 

There, then, in Nazareth Jesus lived for thirty 
years — a happy, industrious, studious, peaceful 
and sinless life. Sinless : think what that means, 
for He was tempted, we are told, like ourselves. 
We have no record of any other sinless man but 
Him. It is no wonder that early Christian leg- 
ends say that wherever He passed a Shechinah, 
or soft cloud of light, was about Him. We are 



62 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

not asked to believe legends literally, but they 
are often based upon the profoundest truth. As 
to this one, we know that something which seems 
like light, some calm and holy and illuminating 
influence, is radiated by every noble, loving, self- 
commanding, godlike soul. How much more 
would this be true of the sinless and perfect soul 
of Jesus. 



CHAPTER VIII 

JESUS IS BAPTIZED AND TEMPTED 

Now during the thirty years in which Jesus 
was growing, developing and working in Naza- 
reth, the state of men's minds and morals was 
becoming worse. Many even denied the exist- 
ence of any God at all, and it naturally followed 
that when they did not believe in God they did 
not believe much in being good either. But 
though men forget to love God, God does not 
forget to love men, and when sin and evil were 
apparently gaining control over them, the Divine 
Providence was preparing the means of helping 
them to save themselves. 

About this time, therefore, people began to 
hear rumors of a strange man who had appeared 
in the wilderness — that is, the barren wild coun- 
try lying twelve miles east of Jerusalem and ex- 
tending to the Jordan River — and who wore only 
a tunic of camel's hair bound round with a 
leather girdle. It was said that he lived on the 
honey of the wild bees swarming among the rocks, 
and on locusts, which were never eaten but by the 
most wretched beggars. He was described as 

63 



64 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

an ascetic of the extreme type — a man who de- 
nied himself all comfort ; he was thin and worn in 
body, burned dark by the hot Eastern sun; his 
hair hung lank and uncut on his bony shoulders, 
but in the cadaverous face his eyes shone like 
wonderful jewels with the living fire of his fear- 
less and glorious soul. And this man, half -fed, 
half -clothed, doing without everything which 
makes life pleasant to the body, was preaching 
there in the desert places, rebuking the rich, 
warning the powerful, threatening the wicked. 
The rumors of him and his preaching grew and 
spread, and people went to see what kind of man 
this could be — some drawn by the continual ex- 
pectation of a Messiah, some by that hunger for 
truth which exists in us all, some by mere idle- 
ness and curiosity. But so impressed were those 
who listened to his fiery words, that though the 
wilderness was a dangerous region, haunted by 
robbers and wild beasts, and at that time, in 
some parts, by crocodiles crawling along the low 
banks of the Jordan River, with its rank weeds, 
its marshes, its willow, tamarisk and acacia trees, 
yet the people came in crowds to hear what John 
the Baptist had to say to them. 

There were two chief things which he had to 
say: That they must repent of their sins, not 
later, not next year or even next week, but now; 
and that One was coming after him who would 



JESUS IS BAPTIZED 65 

teach them with authority, One whose sandals 
he was not worthy to carry. 

Even the proud and powerful Sadducees and 
Pharisees came to hear him, and he feared them 
no more than the rocks around. He called them 
"a brood of vipers." But so great was his power, 
and so deeply did the truthful swords of his words 
cut into their sinful hearts, that some of them 
submitted to be baptized with other repentant 
sinners in the Jordan. 

"Then Jerusalem, and the whole of Judsea, and 
all the Jordan-district went out to him and got 
baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their 
sins." 1 For John the Baptist was no mere 
preacher. He believed in action following 
words. His was a practical religion. He per- 
sonally baptized thousands of people, striving 
with them with all his might to repent and to 
show their repentance in deeds, not words, exhort- 
ing them and struggling with their pride, their 
stupid self-satisfaction, their hardness of heart. 
The people, influenced in spite of themselves by 
his biting words, asked, "Then what are we to 
do?" And he replied, "Let everyone who pos- 
sesses two shirts share with him who has none, 
and let him who has food do likewise." 2 And he 
said, "Now, produce fruits that answer to your 

1 Matt, iii, 5-6. 

2 Luke iii, 11. 



66 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

repentance," that is, do such deeds as shall prove 
that you do really repent of your sins, and desire 
to be good. And he preached to each one accord- 
ing to his own sins. To the publicans — that is, 
the tax-gatherers — he said, "Never exact more 
than your fixed rate." And when the soldiers 
asked, "And what are we to do?" he replied, 
"Never extort money, never lay a false charge, 
but be content with your pay." For it is related 
that the soldiers were often discontented with 
what was given them. 

John spoke with so much authority and truth 
that the people, always looking for the coming 
of a Messiah, began to inquire among themselves 
if John might not be that Messiah. So they 
asked him, but he replied that another was com- 
ing, greater than he. He said, "I am the voice of 
one who cries in the desert, 'level the way for the 
Lord' — as the prophet Isaiah said." 3 

Then they asked him why he baptized at all if 
he were not the Christ, the Messiah himself? 
" 'I am baptizing with water,' John replied, 'but 
my successor is among you, One whom you do 
not recognize, and I am not fit to untie the string 
of his sandal.' " 4 

The next day, St. John tells us in his Gospel — 
and we must not confuse these two holy men who 

8 John i, 23. 
4 John i, 26-27. 



JESUS IS BAPTIZED 67 

have the same name, St. John the Apostle who 
wrote the Gospel, and St. John the Baptist — St. 
John tells us in his Gospel that a Stranger came 
among the people, and approached the Baptist in 
order to be baptized like all the others. But He 
was not like the others. Though clad in the long 
flowing garment generally worn by the common 
people of the country, there was something in 
His carriage, in His whole appearance — in His 
calm and noble brow, His candid and compassion- 
ate eyes, the combination of gentleness and power 
in His personality — which set Him apart from 
all the rest. We know that this majesty of His 
person often affected His disciples and others 
later on. 

Like all the other people, however, He entered 
the water and bowed Himself humbly beneath 
the hands of the Baptist. But when, being bap- 
tized, the Stranger silently prayed, John the 
Baptist saw with a beating heart that the heaven 
was opened, and that from it descended the Holy 
Ghost (that is, the Spirit of God) in the form of 
a dove upon the Stranger, and "a voice came 
from heaven, 'Thou art my Son, the Beloved, to- 
day have I become thy Father.' " 5 And after- 
wards John said, "Now I did see it, and I testify 
that he is the Son of God." 

As we see, this holy Stranger was Jesus, 

s Luke iii, 22. 



68 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

grown now to manhood, who came to John be- 
cause John was a true prophet of God, and was 
baptized like any man or woman to show that He 
was full of patience, obedience and submission to 
the Law. 

The rite of baptism, as John administered it, 
meant that each one, having truly repented of his 
sins, was washed clean of them and could enter 
the new Messianic community — the company of 
those who looked for the Messiah, the company 
of the new Kingdom of God. — How beautiful it 
is to think that God's promises give us all the 
hope that we may be baptized again each morn- 
ing, baptized by God's new day, His rising sun, 
His sweet morning air, so that each day we rise 
refreshed and can begin again, hopefully and con- 
fidently, our battle with the sin and weakness 
we are constantly finding in ourselves. But as 
Jesus was without sin, His baptism was only an 
example in obedience. 

Still we must remember that, though without 
sin, He was not without the temptation to sin. 
From this baptism in the Jordan River He was 
"led by the Spirit in the desert," where for forty 
long days the devil tempted Him. Jesus had no 
food but the roots and wild plants of the desert, 
and the devil said, If you are the Son of God 
change these stones into bread, that you may 
eat. But Jesus only rebuked him. Then the 



JESUS IS BAPTIZED 69 

devil offered Him worldly power and riches, if 
Jesus would worship him. "Jesus answered him, 
'It is written, You must worship the Lord your 
God, and serve him alone.' " 6 Then the devil 
transported Him to the great Temple at Jeru- 
salem, and "set him on a pinnacle," telling Him 
that if He were really the Son of God to throw 
Himself down, and God would save Him. Then 
Jesus only replied, "It has been said, You shall 
not tempt the Lord your God." Finding that 
Jesus could not be tempted into sin by anything 
whatever, the devil "left him till a fit opportunity 
arrived." You will notice that St. Luke says he 
departed for a time only, meaning that as he 
comes continually tempting us, so also Jesus, 
having taken our burden of flesh upon Him, 
would also be tempted again and again. 

After this long fasting and temptation in the 
wilderness "Jesus came back in the power of the 
Spirit to Galilee." Thus, as He controlled and 
subjugated His body, so did His own spirit grow 
in power and strength. 

9 Luke iv, 8. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE FIRST DISCIPLES 

Some time after Jesus had fasted, and strug- 
gled with the devil's temptations in the desert, a 
great trouble befell John the Baptist. 

Among the rich and powerful men whom he 
had dared to rebuke for their wickedness was the 
"ethnarch," or governor, of Galilee and Pereea, 
Herod Antipas. This man was one of the sons 
of Herod the Great, and though a weaker man 
than his father, he too was both cruel and abom- 
inable in character. Recently he had divorced 
his wife without any just cause, and had commit- 
ted the wickedness of taking his brother Philip's 
wife away from him and marrying her himself. 
This woman's name was Herodias, and she too 
had inherited the cruelty of Herod the Great, for 
she was his grand-daughter. So this marriage 
was also considered by the Jews as incestuous. 
All the people were shocked by Herod Antipas' 
defiant sin, and John the Baptist had fearlessly 
told him that the marriage was not lawful. 

Now Herod Antipas lived in his luxurious pal- 
ace at a place called Macheerus in Peraea, just be- 

70 



THE FIRST DISCIPLES 71 

yond the Jordan River, at a distance of only 
about six miles from that part of the river where 
John was baptizing and preaching. Herod An- 
tipas was much annoyed by the sight of the vast 
crowds who passed near his castle on their way to 
listen to John. He feared that there would be 
a revolution among the people, knowing that they 
hated his past crimes and his present lawless mar- 
riage, and that in that event the Roman emperor 
might be angered and would deprive him, 
Herod, of his position as governor over Pereea 
and Galilee. So, urged by his pitiless wife, who 
hated John because of his preaching against her 
marriage, Herod Antipas ordered the Baptist's 
arrest. John was put in chains, taken from his 
people, and imprisoned in the terrible fortress at 
Machasrus, near Herod's castle. This fortress 
was the strongest fortified place in the land next 
to Jerusalem itself. It was surrounded on three 
sides by deep precipices, and its walls were so 
strong that some parts of them remain even to the 
present day, nearly two thousand years later. 
Here John was held prisoner for many months, 
until the tragic event of which we shall soon hear. 
Leaving John in prison, we will now go back 
a little and follow the steps of Jesus after His 
baptism by John. The day following the bap- 
tism John saw Jesus pass by, and he exclaimed, 
"Look, there is the lamb of God, who is to remove 



72 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

the sin of the world!" Two of John's disciples 
stood near, young men of Galilee, of whom one 
was named Andrew. They heard what John 
said, and they turned and slowly followed Jesus. 
When Jesus saw them coming behind Him, He 
stopped and said to them kindly, "What do you 
want?" They replied, asking Him where He 
dwelt, and Jesus said, "Come and see." So they 
went with Him, and stayed all that day, and no 
doubt Jesus taught them and moved them deeply 
with His words. For Andrew went to seek his 
brother, who was no other than Peter, called 
Simon, and told him, "We have found the Mes- 
siah!" It is not difficult to understand what 
must have been Andrew's joy and excitement at 
such a discovery. So he brought Peter to Jesus. 
When Jesus saw Him He said, "You are Simon, 
the son of John? Your name is to be Cephas," 
meaning "Peter" or "rock." 

Nothing is said in the Gospel of the other 
young man who first accompanied Andrew, but 
it is believed by some scholars that he was St. 
John the Evangelist, who became greatly be- 
loved of Jesus, and that he omitted the mention 
of his own name in the Gospel because he himself 
was relating the history. 

Andrew and Peter were fishermen, and so were 
some of the other disciples who were chosen after- 
wards, and who left their nets in the sea to follow 



THE FIRST DISCIPLES 73 

Jesus. All of the twelve disciples were simple 
men, without much education, earning their own 
living, chosen by our Lord in His divine wisdom, 
as a sufficient means, as we can now see, to spread 
His words abroad over the earth. Jesus chose 
them from time to time as He had need, and their 
names were Simon, who is called Peter, and An- 
drew, brothers and fishermen ; James, the son of 
Zebedseus, and John his brother, fishermen; 
Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew 
the tax-gatherer ; James the son of Alphasus and 
Lebbaeus whose surname was Thaddaaus, Simon 
the Zealot and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him. 1 
These men all followed Jesus at a mere word 
from Him, leaving their daily occupations, their 
families, their friends, to devote their lives to 
His love and His service, and some of them to 
suffer martyrdom in later years. We can infer, 
then, that there was something kingly and im- 
pressive, something leader-like and yet tender 
and persuasive in His appearance and manner. 
As all people who are truly good are usually 
pleasant or in some way attractive to behold, it is 
but natural that the holy and sinless Jesus should 
have been majestic and beautiful. Both St. 
Jerome and St. Augustine, saints of the early 
Christian Church, described Jesus in the words 
of Psalm xiv, 2-3: "Thou art fairer than the 

1 Matt. x, 2-4. 



74 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

children of men." While none of those who fol- 
lowed Him have left any record of His appear- 
ance, neither have His enemies said anything 
against it ; and as in the Gospels there are several 
instances of the wonderful effect which the mere 
glance of Jesus produced upon others, there 
must have been in His eyes, in His face and 
mien, something singularly affecting and inspir- 
ing. 

Hearing now of the imprisonment of John the 
Baptist, Jesus returned northward into His own 
province of Galilee, followed by His first disci- 
ples, while others were added from day to day to 
the little band. This was the way in which Bar- 
tholomew came. When Philip, already a disci- 
ple, told Bartholomew that they had found the 
Messiah — who was Jesus of Nazareth, the son of 
Joseph the carpenter, they said — Bartholomew 
was amazed, and exclaimed, "Can anything good 
come out of Nazareth?" And Philip replied, all 
joy and eagerness, "Come and see." 

Why did Bartholomew say those strange 
words, can anything good come out of Nazareth? 
The province of Galilee, where Nazareth lay, was 
not regarded with respect by the Jews of the 
other provinces, because its population was 
mixed, was partly Gentile and not pure Jewish, 
and because the people were less cultured than 
elsewhere. In Galilee there were Phoenicians, 



THE FIRST DISCIPLES 75 

Arabs and Greeks, and a dialect was spoken 
called Aramaic which, as has already been ex- 
plained, was the usual language of Jesus. There- 
fore, not only did Jesus come in poverty and 
humbleness of life, but even from a province 
which was generally despised, thus teaching ever 
and always the lesson of humility. 

When Bartholomew came, wondering, to see 
this Son of Joseph the carpenter of Nazareth, 
whom Philip announced as the King, the Mes- 
siah, Jesus said, "Here is a genuine Israelite! 
There is no guile in him" — no craftiness or deceit. 
Bartholomew was surprised by this, for he had 
never before seen Jesus, so he asked, "How do 
you know me?" And Jesus answered, "When 
you were under that fig tree, before ever Philip 
called you, I saw you." 

We may suppose that Bartholomew, knowing 
that he had not been in Jesus' sight, was awed by 
this evidence of His power, for he said, "Rabbi" 
— that is, Master — "You are the Son of God; 
you are the King of Israel." Then Jesus an- 
swered, "You believe because I told you I had 
seen you under that fig tree? You shall see more 
than that." 2 

a Johni, 47-51. 



CHAPTER X 

THE FIRST MIRACLES 

Very soon did Jesus begin to show "more than 
that" to His followers and the people, and , at 
this time He performed His first miracle. 

The word miracle means something very full of 
wonder, an event which is above the laws of na- 
ture, supernatural. No human being can change 
the laws of nature, but God, who created those 
laws, can of course change them in accordance 
with His Almighty Will. So Jesus, His Son, 
one with Him, was given this power, and used it 
in deeds of goodness and mercy, that men might 
believe in God and might become good. 

When Jesus left the Jordan River, after His 
baptism, He returned to Nazareth and to Caph- 
arnahum in Galilee, and began at once to teach in 
the synagogues, or churches, of those towns. 
About this time, in the little village of Cana, near 
Nazareth, there was a marriage to which Jesus 
and His disciples were bidden, and Jesus' Moth- 
er, Mary, also, and perhaps others of His rela- 
tives. Jesus went. He never seemed to shun 
innocent feasting or mirth, or to see any harm 

76 



THE FIRST MIRACLES 77 

in cheerfulness and gayety when virtue and peace 
were present. 

They were not rich people whose wedding was 
being celebrated, and suddenly in the midst of the 
rejoicing the wine, which had been provided for 
the guests, was exhausted. Jesus' Mother told 
Him what had happened. Probably she felt 
sorry for the well-meaning host, whose good will 
was greater than his means. Jesus replied to 
her, "Woman, what have you to do with me? 
My time has not come yet." 

The word "Woman" here was not disrespect- 
ful. As the word was then used it was full of 
respect. Jesus may have intended to recall gen- 
tly to His Mother that He was much more than 
merely her son. But she was not troubled by 
His words ; she understood Him, and telling the 
servants to do whatever He should bid them, she 
waited with motherly patience and faith. 

There were six large stone water pots standing 
there, which could hold, each, about fifteen gal- 
lons, and were used for the daily supply of water 
for bathing and drinking. Jesus commanded 
the servants to fill these pots with water, and they 
did so. Perhaps they smiled among themselves 
at this strange order given them in the midst of 
the feast, nudging one another and inclined to 
good-natured ridicule, as the ignorant or incredu- 
lous often are. 



78 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

Jesus said to them, " 'Now draw some out and 
take it to the manager of the feast.' They did 
so." And lo, the water had become wine. 1 

The servants had grown silent now with won- 
der and awe ; here was something they could not 
understand, yet had seen with their own eyes; 
and the manager of the feast, not knowing 
where this wine had come from, was so pleased 
with the taste of it that he called the bridegroom 
and said, that whereas men generally gave their 
guests the best wine first, he had kept the best for 
the last. 

Now the bridegroom in his turn was surprised, 
for he had no better wine than he had already 
given, and indeed he had not had wine enough of 
any kind, so the explanation was given him, and 
the account of the miracle passed from guest to 
guest. We can imagine how they must have 
looked at Jesus who had wrought this miracle in 
their presence, and how they must have gone so- 
berly away at the end of the feast to talk of the 
miracle which they had seen, and to conjecture 
whether this were not indeed the Messiah, who 
seemed to be only the carpenter, Jesus, of the 
neighboring town of Nazareth. 

It was probably soon after this that Jesus went 
to His own home in Nazareth, where an interest- 
ing scene, typical of His later struggles and suf- 

1 John ii, 8. 



THE FIRST MIRACLES 79 

fering, occurred in the little synagogue. Here 
eveiyone knew Him only as the son of Joseph the 
carpenter, Himself a carpenter also. St. Luke 
in his fourth chapter says simply, "Then he came 
to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and 
on the sabbath he entered the synagogue as was 
his custom. He stood up to read the lesson." 

Now the book which was given Him to read 
was that of the great prophet Isaiah, containing 
the prophecy of the Messiah's coming, and this 
prophecy He read, beginning, "The Spirit of the 
Lord is upon me." 2 When he had read the pro- 
phecy, "folding up the book, he handed it back 
to the attendant and sat down." 

Then, while everybody in the synagogue looked 
intently at Him, He spoke: "Today, this scrip- 
ture is fulfilled in your hearing." 

The people were now truly astonished. They 
looked at each other, somewhat shocked, and said, 
"Is this not Joseph's son?" Is not this the son 
of the carpenter who dares to stand here and tell 
us that it was he of whom our great prophet was 
speaking? Jesus saw their disbelief, and said, 
"I tell you truly, no prophet is ever welcome in 
his native place." And then he cited to them ex- 
amples from history of the prophets who had 
been rejected and denied by their own people. 

But the people were indignant and furious at 

2 Luke iv, 18. 



80 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

His words, even murderous toward Him, for 
they "rose up, put him out of the town, and 
brought him to the brow of the hill on which their 
town was built, in order to hurl him down. But 
he made his way through them and went off." 3 

How did this happen ? What was the strange 
power He exerted over that suddenly enraged 
and brutal crowd — enraged because they thought 
Him blasphemous in thus proclaiming Himself 
the Messiah, and brutal because they were given 
over to senseless anger? The Gospel does not 
give us an answer directly, but in reading it we 
learn what a kingly dignity dwelt in Jesus' man- 
ner toward all men, and we can surmise that when 
the bullying crowd had brought Him to the top 
of the hill, and were preparing to kill Him, He 
turned and looked at them, or spoke some signif- 
icant words which made them afraid to do Him 
harm. It was not His time to die. He was only 
now beginning His ministry on earth — that 
short ministry lasting about three and a half 
years, and by which the whole course of the 
world's destiny was to be changed, according to 
the Will of God. 

Jesus then sorrowfully left His own native and 
well-beloved Nazareth, which refused to listen to 
Him, and went to the city of Capharnahum 
about twenty-five miles away, and there, in the 

8 Luke iv, 29-30. 



THE FIRST MIRACLES 81 

synagogue where He taught, the people also were 
astonished at His words, "for he taught them 
like an authority, not like the scribes." But 
though Jesus' teaching, new and startling as it 
was, greatly surprised the people of Capharna- 
hum, it did not enrage them. They allowed 
Him to speak. 4 

One day in the synagogue where Jesus was 
teaching came a sick man, who had "a spirit of an 
unclean daemon." 5 The Jews believed that cer- 
tain diseases — probably epilepsy, insanity and 
kindred troubles — were caused by a daemon en- 
tering into the body of a man, possessing and con- 
trolling him, and making him ill. But whatever 
was the cause or nature of this disease known as 
being "possessed of a devil" — and we have no 
positive /knowledge of the subject — this poor 
man in the synagogue was suffering and wretch- 
ed, and he cried out to Jesus, "Ha! Jesus of 
Nazareth, what business have you with us? 
Have you come to destroy us? I know who you 
are, you are God's holy One!" 6 Then Jesus 
spoke to him, commanding the unclean spirit to 
come out of him, and he was cured that same in- 
stant. The people, astonished, began to talk 
among themselves and say, What is this wonder- 
ful word that is immediately obeyed by unclean 

4 Mark i, 22. 
Luke iv, 33. 
a Luke iv, 34. 



82 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

spirits? So that the fame of this cure and of 
Jesus' teaching "spread over all the surrounding 
country." 7 

What Jesus now taught was the same that 
John the Baptist taught: "Repent, the Reign 
of heaven is near." 8 That is, be sorry for what 
we have done that is wrong, and do wrong no 
more. 

7 Luke iv, 37. 
s Matt. iv, 17. 






CHAPTER XI 

THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT 

The town of Capharnahum which Jesus now 
chose for His dwelling-place and as the scene of 
His active work as a teacher, was situated at the 
northwest of the beautiful harp-shaped Sea of 
Galilee, sometimes called Lake of Tiberias or 
Lake of Gennesaret. The waters of this sea 
were blue and sparkling like a jewel, and the 
mountains around it formed a picturesque set- 
ting. The shores were luxuriant with flowers 
and fruit, for all the fruits of Palestine grew in 
this fertile region — figs, grapes, olives, oranges, 
pomegranates. The grapes and figs were ripe 
during ten months of the year, and there were 
other fruits that ripened all the year round. The 
heat was then tempered by the foliage of num- 
berless trees, — cypresses, walnuts, almonds, 
pines, myrtles, laurels, palms and balsams. In 
after years, when the Mohammedans conquered 
the country, these trees were destroyed and the 
land became hot and barren as it now is; but at 
the time of Jesus it was a blossoming and fruitful 
garden. 



84 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

The western bank of the Sea of Galilee rose 
in highly cultivated terraces, behind which tower- 
ed the mountains. In one part the mountains 
were divided, giving place to the lovely plain of 
Gennesaret, with its thousands of wild lilies. 
This plain lay for three miles along the sea, and 
within it, embowered in trees and flowers, was 
Capharnahum. 

The eastern shore of the sea, on the other hand, 
was barren and precipitous, and presented a 
striking contrast to the luxuriant gardens of the 
western banks ; but it was on this lonely and for- 
bidding eastern shore that Jesus often sought 
solitude and peace from the exhausting labors of 
His preaching and healing, and the suffocating 
pressure of the great crowds who soon began to 
follow Him. 

The sea itself, with its pure waters abounding 
in fish, was about fifteen miles long and six miles 
broad, and was then a scene of great activity. 
Several thousand vessels, of every kind known to 
the country, from the royal painted ships of 
Herod Antipas and the warships of the Romans, 
to the fishermen's little boats, floated upon it, be- 
cause it lay on the route of the great caravans 
coming from Egypt on the southwest to Damas- 
cus in Syria on the northeast. These caravans of 
merchants and their attendants, bringing their 
goods to and fro, buying, selling and bargaining 



THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT 85 

on the way, filled the country with trade and 
labor, and brought in touch many men of many 
nations — Jews and Gentiles, Arabs from the des- 
ert, Egyptians, Phoenicians, Syrians, Romans 
and Greeks. The caravans gave work to the 
people as caravan guides, camel-drivers, packers 
and other laborers, but the greater part of the 
population cultivated the rich soil which so well 
repaid their efforts. It was therefore a promis- 
ing land for the dissemination of the teaching of 
Jesus, and this was probably one cause of His 
choosing it. 

Another cause may have been the nature of the 
people themselves, who were less rigid and obsti- 
nate than the Jews of Judaea. The Galileans 
were quick to anger, but also poetical and full 
of sensibility, and therefore more ready to listen 
to new words of Truth. Solomon composed his 
Song of Songs in Galilee. But still the people 
were considered half-foreign, half-Gentile by the 
Jews of Judaea, and despised for a certain clum- 
siness of speech and manner. 

There is no full description of the town of 
Capharnahum and we have to picture it in our 
minds like other Oriental cities of that country 
and time, with narrow winding streets and low 
houses, but everywhere — as we are told — gardens 
and trees. Jesus' disciple Peter had his humble 
home here, and Jesus dwelt with him. 



86 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

Now the mother of Peter's wife also lived in 
the house, and on the same day when Jesus healed 
the man of his unclean spirit in the synagogue, 
certain people came to tell Him that the poor 
woman was ill of a burning fever, and begged 
Him to heal her. So Jesus "went up to her and 
taking her hand made her rise ; the fever left her 
at once and she ministered to them." * 

The news of this second cure went forth into 
the town, and so at evening — at sunset, the Gos- 
pel says — there was a pathetic and beautiful scene 
in Capharnahum. Thei people trustfully 
brought all their sick to the door of Peter's house 
— young and old, rich and poor — asking Jesus 
to cure them. "Indeed the whole town was gath- 
ered at the door." We can see that benignant 
Presence standing at the little door of Peter's 
simple house, with the sunset light falling upon 
Him, healing and speaking words of cheer and 
forgiveness to the poor sick folk — perhaps to the 
mother weeping over her suffering child, whose 
tears turned to smiles when the child arose, well 
and strong ; to the poor old man stricken with the 
palsy, who at Jesus' touch and word became 
sound; to the epileptics, or lunatics, or those 
"possessed with daemons," whom with a word or 
two He restored to reason and health. 

It was only natural that multitudes should 

1 Mark i, 31. 



THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT 87 

throng to Him, but only natural too that He 
should grow weary under His burden of flesh, as 
men do after long-continued labor. So now He 
retired to rest ; but after He had slept for a time 
He rose up "a great while before day," and went 
out to a "lonely spot" to pray. This was His 
frequent custom, and it was probably thus He 
renewed the spiritual strength for His work. But 
there was so great need of Him that He was 
rarely allowed to be alone for any length of time. 
Finding Him absent, His disciples now followed 
Him to His solitude, and said, "Everybody is 
looking for you." But Jesus replied that He 
must leave Capharnahum and go to other towns 
to teach them also, for "that is why I came out 
here." 2 His work, for which He knew He 
would have but a short time, must be well done. 
So He went out of Capharnahum and preached 
in the synagogues everywhere in Galilee, teach- 
ing and healing and blessing the people. 

One day a leper came to Him and begged to be 
healed. "If you only choose, you can cleanse 
me," he said, beseeching Jesus. Now leprosy is 
one of the most terrible diseases known to man- 
kind, for which no cure had ever been found. 
But Jesus "stretched his hand out in pity and 
touched him saying, 'I do choose, be cleansed.' 

a Mark i, 38-39. 



88 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

And the leprosy at once left him and he was 
cleansed." 3 

Jesus told this leper to say nothing of how he 
was cured, perhaps partly because when the peo- 
ple heard of these wonderful cures they came 
to Him in such numbers that He was not able 
to teach them, and partly because His min- 
istry was not to be devoted wholly to their bodies, 
as they would so readily incline to believe. But 
the poor leper, overcome with joy at his recovery, 
rushed forth and told the glorious news to every- 
body he met, so that Jesus could not enter the 
cities because of the people thronging to Him, 
and was obliged to remain in the desert places 
round about ; and to these places the people came 
in multitudes from many cities, even from Jeru- 
salem, and from Tyre and Sidon in Phoenicia, fol- 
lowing Him wherever He went. 

Once when Jesus had passed the entire night in 
prayer and repose on a lonely mountain, which is 
supposed to be that mountain near the Sea of 
Galilee called "Horns of Hattin," 4 He was 
joined at early dawn by His disciples who were 
never contented except in His presence, for had 
He not chosen them to follow Him always, to 
share His poverty and suffering, His works of 
teaching and mercy? But Jesus saw that great 

8 Mark i, 40-43. 

4 Farrar's "Life of Christ," p. 190. 



THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT 89 

multitudes of people had come also to seek Him, 
so He went to meet them, and healed them, cur- 
ing them of all sorts of diseases, and forgiving 
their sins, filling their hearts with love and grati- 
tude and joy. Then He began to teach them, 
and to preach the wonderful sermon which we 
know as "The Sermon on the Mount." It is 
written in the fifth, sixth and seventh chapters 
of St. Matthew, the only one of the apostles who 
has fully recorded it for us. Whether this ser- 
mon was delivered all at one time or on different 
occasions we do not know. 

We can understand the surprise of the people, 
trained in the ancient Jewish ideas of morality, 
when they heard this sermon. In many ways 
it told them to do things exactly the opposite of 
those which they had always done and thought 
right — the old law of revenge, for instance, "an 
eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth," — the law 
which permitted a man if he were injured, to in- 
jure in his turn the one who had wrought him 
harm. But Jesus taught them exactly the con- 
trary. 

In this sermon He also gave men The Lord's 
Prayer, in which they are taught to pray to God, 
not as the all-powerful creator of the universe, 
but as a loving father in Heaven. 



CHAPTER XII 

JESUS CLEANSES THE TEMPLE 

As Jesus returned with His disciples from the 
mountain called "Horns of Hattin" to Caphar- 
nahum, a certain army-captain, or "centurion," 
came to Him, begging Him to heal his servant 
who lay at his home stricken with the palsy. 
This army-captain was a Roman officer, having 
a hundred other Roman soldiers under his com- 
mand. He must have been a kindly-disposed 
man, for he had built a synagogue for the con- 
quered Jews where they could worship God in 
their own way; and the people liked him. Fur- 
thermore, he had a great gift, the gift of faith, 
and though he was a Roman and had been a 
heathen, he was able to see the truth and Divin- 
ity of Christ. 

Therefore, when Jesus said, "I will come and 
heal him," the army-captain replied, "Sir, I am 
not fit to have you under my roof: only say the 
word, and my servant will be cured." 

Jesus was touched by this perfect trust, and 
He said to His disciples, "I tell you truly, I have 
never met faith like this anywhere in Israel." 

90 



JESUS CLEANSES THE TEMPLE 91 

Then He spoke solemnly of the future fate of the 
unbelieving Jews. After this He turned to the 
captain and said, "Go; as you have had faith, 
your prayer is granted." And in that same hour 
the servant was cured. 1 

Thus occurred another of the thirty-three mir- 
acles of Jesus recorded in the Gospels, of which 
Matthew relates twenty, Mark eighteen, Luke 
nineteen and John seven. Each Evangelist 
wrote about those miracles which he knew. We 
are told that even the skeptical Jews have never 
denied Jesus' miracles, but thought He per- 
formed them "by means of the 'Tetragramma- 
ton,' or sacred name" 2 — which was a Jewish su- 
perstition we need not here inquire into. Most 
of the Jews, however, would never believe that 
Jesus was the Messiah, was the Son of God. It 
was easier for them, as it is for many people, to 
believe in superstition than in Truth. 

It was now spring, the time of the feast of 
the Passover at Jerusalem. It has already been 
told how the people from all parts of Palestine, 
and beyond, gathered together at Jerusalem for 
this great feast of the Jewish religion. So Jesus 
went also, and we shall see what He did there in 
the Temple. 

One of the large courts of the Temple was 

1 Matt, viii, 5-13. 

a Farrar, note on p. 415. 



92 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

called the Court of the Gentiles, and the Jews 
who traded in sheep and oxen and doves for the 
sacrifices had little by little brought them into 
this court for their better convenience in selling 
them. The money-changers also had ventured 
to bring their tables onto this consecrated ground, 
and no one rebuked them. These money-chang- 
ers exchanged the money of the various pil- 
grims, which often consisted of copper or brass 
coins of different nations, for the "clean" — that 
is, religiously pure — silver money which the law 
required as an offering each pilgrim should make 
to the Temple. The money-changers charged 
a fee of five per cent on each exchange, and they 
were greedy to make, each, more than the others. 
So they had pushed their way nearer and nearer 
to the places where trade seemed most brisk. 
There they sat, therefore, under the four-col- 
umned arcades of the Court of the Gentiles, their 
tables covered with small piles of money, and all 
around them the thousands of poor, hot, crowded, 
ill-smelling beasts, which were waiting to be sold 
for the sacrifices. A shocking scene to be found 
at the entrance of the Holy Temple of God. 

When Jesus, coming as a pilgrim with the 
other people to the Temple, beheld this odious 
desecration, He was possessed with "holy anger," 
the anger against blasphemy, the anger of God. 
He swiftly made "a scourge of cords," and lay- 



JESUS CLEANSES THE TEMPLE 93 

ing about with this upon the men who tended the 
beasts, He drove them and all the animals out of 
the Temple. When this was done He went to 
the money-changers and overturned their tables, 
so that all the carefully arranged money rolled 
about on the floor ; and while the furious brokers 
were picking up these precious coins, He said to 
the dove-sellers, "Away with these ! My Father's 
house is not to be turned into a shop !" 

The enraged Jews, who had not resisted this 
attack probably because it was so sudden and so 
unexpected, now turned upon Him and demand- 
ed by what right He drove them out. They 
knew in their hearts that they were in the wrong, 
that they had defiled the Holy House of God, 
but they wanted to know what sign He could 
give them to show that He had a right thus vio- 
lently to teach them their duty. To this Jesus 
only replied, "Destroy this sanctuary, and I will 
raise it up in three days." They naturally 
thought He meant the Temple itself. So they 
said, scornfully, that forty-six years had been re- 
quired to build that magnificent Temple, and 
would He rebuild it in three days? They must 
have laughed at Him in their blind contempt. 
But Jesus referred to the temple of His body, 
wherein dwelt the Spirit of God, and He meant 
that after His death His body, the temple, would 
arise in three days. And probably He meant to 



94 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

show them that in comparison with the merely 
material Temple-church, no matter how superb 
and costly it was, the body of the Son of Man 
wherein dwelt God's Spirit, would be infinitely 
more wonderful, and represent infinitely more 
power, in being raised from the dead. 3 

But as usual they did not understand Him; 
their thoughts ran altogether in material chan- 
nels. It was thus that most of them never could 
understand what Jesus meant when He spoke 
of the spiritual kingdom — they thought always 
of a king on a golden throne, dispensing rich 
worldly and fleshly blessings, not of the Son of 
God giving peace and happiness and life to the 
soul. 

This act of Jesus, the forcible cleansing of the 
Temple, should be carefully considered by those 
who believe that He taught a consistent policy 
of non-resistance to evil. To the revengeful 
Jews he did indeed recommend humility and 
mercy to the point of non-resistance, but in the 
Temple cleansing He set an example of re- 
sistance to evil in the cause of Right which we 
cannot disregard. 

When the Passover feast was over, Jesus left 
Jerusalem and returned toward Galilee through 
the province of Samaria. The Samaritans had 
once been idolators, worshiping five gods, and 

3 John ii, 19-21. 



JESUS CLEANSES THE TEMPLE 95 

even now were not firm in the orthodox faith of 
the Jews. Their vacillating nature brought 
down upon them the contempt and enmity of the 
orthodox Jews, and the latter in traveling 
through Palestine generally avoided Samaria. 
But Jesus, never avoiding but ever seeking out 
sinners, passed through the country. 

As He and His disciples pursued their way, 
they drew near to the Samaritan city of Sy- 
char, and while the disciples entered the town to 
buy food, Jesus, weary from the journey, rested 
beside the well known as Jacob's Well, and sat 
on the stone curb of it. While He sat there a 
Samaritan woman, who was a sinner, came to the 
well to draw water, and Jesus asked her for a 
drink. The woman, seeing that He was a 
stranger, asked Him how He, a Jew, could ask 
a drink from her, a Samaritan. "For," she said, 
"the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans." 

Jesus said that if she knew who in reality He 
was, she would ask Him for "living water" — for 
He wanted to teach and help her. But she, not 
understanding, replied, "Sir, you have nothing 
to draw water with, and it is a deep well ; where 
do you get your living water?" 

Jesus told her that by the "living water" He 
meant the water of everlasting life. But still, 
as He seemed to her only a thirsty traveler rest- 
ing by the well, she did not understand. Then 



96 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

Jesus showed her, by telling her facts in her 
life, that He knew she was a sinner, and He 
taught her further, rebuking her people for their 
ignorance in having worshiped several gods, and 
saying, "God is Spirit: and his worshipers must 
worship in spirit and in reality." The woman 
was surprised by these words. Who was this 
Man who thus spoke to her of God with author- 
ity? And how could He know that she was a 
sinful woman who had had no real husband, when 
He said, "You have had five husbands; and he 
whom you have now espoused is not your hus- 
band?" She did not know that He spoke per- 
haps of the five religions of her people. 

So she said, "I know Messiah [Christ] is com- 
ing. When he arrives, he will explain it all to 
us" — as if she would have said, "It is not for 
you, merely a weary traveler as you are, to pre- 
sume to tell me such things." Then followed 
that great declaration, here made most fully a^d 
clearly for the first time : 

" T am Messiah,' said Jesus, T who am talking 
to you'." 

In spite of her skepticism the woman had al- 
ready been impressed by His words and His 
manner of saying them, and by His knowledge 
of her life of sin, for when this solemn announce- 
ment reached her ears, she ran off quickly to the 



JESUS CLEANSES THE TEMPLE 97 

city, leaving her water-pot forgotten, and told 
the men what surprising adventure had befallen 
her. "Come here, look at a man," she cried, 
"who has told me everything I ever did! Can 
he be the Christ?" So the Samaritans came out 
from their city to see Jesus, and He taught them. 

Meanwhile the disciples returned with the food 
they had bought, but He would not eat, saying, 
"My food is to do the will of him who sent me, 
and to accomplish his work," for He would not 
interrupt His instruction of the Samaritans who 
were crowding around Him. Hearing His 
words many of these people now believed that He 
was indeed the Messiah, the Savior of the world, 
and they begged Him to remain with them, so 
He stayed two days, teaching and preaching. 
Then He continued His journey back to Gali- 
lee. 4 

St. John refers to the surprise of the disciples 
when, returning to the well-side, they saw Jesus 
talking to a woman, for the Jews had peculiar no- 
tions regarding women. No Rabbi — the Jewish 
teacher of the law — was allowed to talk to a 
woman in public, even with his own wife. But 
Jesus always behaved to women as to men: He 
made no distinction between them. 

Thus you see that Jesus' birth was first fore- 
told to poor and humble shepherds, and His first 

* John iv, 3-43. 



98 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

distinct and literal statement and revelation that 
He was the Messiah Himself was made to a 
poor Samaritan woman who was also a sinner. 
For, as we are so often told, He came in humility 
and benignity, not to judge the world, not to 
judge sinners, but to help and save them. 



CHAPTER XIII 

JESUS RAISES THE DEAD 

One day Jesus and His disciples, and the mul- 
titude of people who had begun to follow Him 
about from place to place, went to a town called 
Nain, which is not far from Nazareth. 

As they approached the town they met a fu- 
neral procession coming out of the gate. It was 
the funeral of the only son of a widow, and the 
poor mother followed after her dead child, weep- 
ing piteously, When Jesus saw her grief, He 
"felt pity for her and said to her, 'Do not weep.' " 
We can imagine how she must have raised her 
head in surprise at hearing that beautiful, con- 
soling voice in a situation which was without hope. 
But Jesus went to the bier where the young man 
lay dead, and placed His hand upon it, and the 
bearers stopped, probably shocked that anyone 
should interrupt the progress of a funeral. How 
must all of them have been startled and awed 
when they heard Jesus say, "Young man, I bid 
you rise." 

What a terrible moment of suspense and fear 
must have followed those astounding words! 



100 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

And how their hearts must have beat, and their 
hands and limbs trembled when he that was dead 
"sat up, and began to speak. And Jesus gave 
him back to his mother." 

"All were seized with awe and glorified God. 
'A great prophet has appeared among us,' they 
said, 'God has visited his people.' " There must 
have been first a great fear, in heavy silence, when 
they saw the dead arise; and after that pause 
of speechless awe they burst out into praise of 
God. 1 

The news of this thrilling event reached the 
ears of John the Baptist in his fortress-prison at 
Machasrus. Now the ruler Herod Antipas, who 
had imprisoned John, allowed his disciples to visit 
him in the prison. So John sent two of them to 
Jesus with this message, "Are you the Coming 
One? Or are we to look out for someone else?" 

Jesus' reply to this was to show John's disci- 
ples many wonderful works of healing. Then 
He sent them back to John, saying, "Go and re- 
port to John what you have seen and heard." 2 

Jesus was now followed by such multitudes, 
and they crowded so eagerly around Him, that 
they did not leave Him space enough in which to 
preach to them. Sometimes on the shore of the 
Sea of Galilee He was obliged to seek refuge in 

"Luke vii, 11-16. 
3 Luke vii, 17-22. 



JESUS RAISES THE DEAD 101 

a boat from which, when it was pushed off from 
the shore, He could speak to the people. Once 
when He was very weary He entered a ship with 
His disciples to cross over to the eastern side, 
seeking solitude and time for prayer in that more 
lonely region. He was so weary that He fell 
asleep, and while He slept a storm broke over 
them, the waves rose so high that they dashed 
over the ship, and His disciples were afraid. So 
they awoke Jesus, and begged Him to save them. 

Jesus said, " 'Why are you afraid? How 
little you trust God!' Then He got up and 
checked the winds and the sea, and there was a 
great calm." And His disciples were amazed. 3 

When they reached the eastern shore of the 
sea they passed by certain tombs of the dead, and 
out from among these tombs came two living be- 
ings "possessed with daemons," and very wild and 
fierce. We must remember that there were no 
asylums or hospitals in those days for the shelter 
of lunatics or even ordinary sick people, and 
these poor creatures had been living among the 
tombs, alone in their terrible mental and physical 
misery. 

Some distance away there was a large herd of 
swine, and the "daemons" who possessed these 
poor men cried out to Jesus, if He drove them 
out to let them enter the bodies of the swine. 

3 Matt, viii, 23-27. 



102 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

"And he said unto them, 'Begone!' " So the 
daemons entered the herd of swine, "and the en- 
tire drove rushed down the steep slope into the 
sea and perished in the water." 4 

The swineherds, much frightened, ran into the 
city and told the tale everywhere, and the stupid 
Gadarenes or Gerasenes — for it was their coun- 
try — came out in great crowds to ask Jesus to 
go away and leave them. We do not know 
whether it was their fear of Him, which the mir- 
acle had aroused, or whether they were merely 
angry at the loss of their swine, which seemed to 
them more important than the miraculous cure of 
the two men. But they will always be remem- 
bered as the people who asked the Savior of the 
world to depart from their coast. 

Jesus, therefore, having had none of the repose 
which He sought, entered again into a ship and 
returned to Capharnahum; and no sooner had He 
arrived there than the people came thronging to 
Him with their sick to be healed. 

They were so eager for His help that one day, 
when He sat in Peter's house — having no house 
of His own, nor "any place to lay His head" — 
the crowd being dense within the house and with- 
out, there came four men bringing a poor para- 
lyzed man on a mat. But when they saw that it 
was impossible to get near to Jesus by reason of 

* Matt, viii, 28-34. 



JESUS RAISES THE DEAD 103 

the crowd, they carried the mat to the low roof, 
made an opening in it, and lowered the man down 
through the hole into the room where Jesus was. 
And when Jesus saw what great faith they had 
in His compassion and power, He said to the par- 
alyzed man, "My son, your sins are forgiven. " 

Now there were certain Scribes standing there, 
and when they heard these words of Jesus they 
considered them blasphemous. "Who can for- 
give sins," they thought to themselves, "but God 
only?" And Jesus read their thoughts and per- 
ceived their unbelief. So He rebuked them for 
their petty reasoning about the letter of things 
and their blindness to the spirit of things. What 
difference did it make, He asked them, whether 
He said, "Your sins are forgiven," or "Rise, lift 
your pallet and go away?" But to show them 
that His power was sufficient to forgive sins or 
do what He would, He said to the paralytic, 
"Rise, I tell you, lift your pallet, and go home." 

Then the helpless man rose up, lifted up his 
mat and walked out amid the general wonder. 
St. Mark tells us that all who were present glori- 
fied God, and said to one another, "We never saw 
the like of it!" 5 

8 Mark ii, 3-12. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE SCRIBES AND PHARISEES 

Who were these Scribes and Pharisees who fol- 
lowed Jesus from place to place, to listen to 
Him, and to trap Him in something which they 
might consider blasphemy, and by means of 
which they could accuse Him before the people 
and destroy their faith in Him? For they were 
themselves teachers of the people, and they grew 
more and more jealous as they saw Jesus' power 
and influence increase day by day. 

The Scribes were those Jews who were learned 
in the religious law, and the religious law with the 
Jews was also the civil law. Everything was 
regulated by "the law," and as the people were 
constantly taught the law, even every serving 
man or maid was familiar with its principal rules 
and precepts. The duty of the Scribes was to 
copy and correct the law, and read and explain 
it to the people. So when Jesus came and 
preached a law quite different, a much higher 
and more spiritual law, these Scribes were dis- 
turbed and angry. Jesus, in their opinion, was 
intruding upon their own ground. They fol- 

104 



THE SCRIBES AND PHARISEES 105 

lowed Him about, therefore, to entrap Him by 
some subtle question, and if possible they hoped 
to humiliate Him some day before the people. 

The Pharisees were a Jewish sect almost whol- 
ly given over to the innumerable outward observ- 
ances of their religion, and paying but little heed 
to the real inner spirit of truth and morality. 
They were consequently hypocrites, for they 
seemed better than they were, and so the word 
Pharisee means to this day a kind of hypocrite, 
one who makes a show of religion without really 
being good. They, too, followed Jesus about, 
hoping to annoy and trouble Him in His teach- 
ing, and thus prove to the people that He was not 
the Messiah. For it was impossible for these 
Scribes and Pharisees — almost without exception 
— to believe in a Messiah whose teaching was in 
so many respects quite different from orthodox 
Jewish belief, who had been humbly born in Naz- 
areth of Galilee, who was the son of a carpenter, 
as they thought, and Himself a carpenter like- 
wise, a Messiah who was poor and lowly, who 
ate the cheapest, simplest food, who had no 
house, who had no clothes save those he wore. 
No. Their idea of the Messiah was of a king, 
rich, proud, powerful. Jesus they could not and 
would not accept. 

But Jesus accepted all who believed in Him. 
The worst sinners, did they appeal to Him in 



106 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

any way for help, were more welcome than those 
who were already good, for they had a more ur- 
gent need of Him. He said often that He had 
come to save the weak and the sinful, and none 
were too poor, too obscure, too wicked to be 
loved by Him if they desired to reach Him. He 
was truly the incarnation of perfect sympathy. 
He joined in the innocent happiness of the peo- 
ple, as well as in their sorrows. And because 
He sometimes shared in their sober feasting, the 
Scribes and Pharisees bitterly criticized Him. 
To their unreasonableness He replied, "For 
John [the Baptist] has come neither eating nor 
drinking, and men say, 'He has a devil ;' the Son 
of man has come eating and drinking, and men 
say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend 
of tax-gatherers and sinners.' Nevertheless, 
Wisdom is vindicated by all that she does." 

It is in this same chapter that St. Matthew re- 
cords for us that beautiful promise of Jesus which 
has comforted so many sad and weary human 
beings: "Come unto me, all who are labouring 
and burdened, and I will refresh you. Take my 
yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am 
gentle and humble in heart, and you will find 
your souls refreshed; my yoke is kindly and my 
burden light." * 

It was about this time that Jesus and His dis- 

*Matt. xi, 18-19; 28-30. 



THE SCRIBES AND PHARISEES 107 

ciples passed on a Sabbath day through a corn- 
field, and as the disciples were hungry they 
picked some ears of the corn and ate them. (This 
was in reality wheat, not the Indian corn, and 
the wheat of Capharnahum is celebrated for its 
excellence in the Talmud, the twelve great folio 
books of Jewish law and tradition. ) 

Now one of the strictest rules of the Jewish 
religion was the observance of the Sabbath, which 
was Saturday. Their rules regarding this had 
grown more and more severe until they had be- 
come absurd, and a great deal of valuable time, 
which might have been devoted to deeds of prac- 
tical charity, was wasted because of these empty 
and soulless formalities and prohibitions. So 
when the Pharisees saw the hungry disciples ac- 
tually daring to pluck the corn on the Sabbath 
day, which was not permitted by the law, they at 
once said to Jesus, There! See what your fol- 
lowers are doing. They are behaving unlaw- 
fully on the Sabbath! 

Jesus reminded them of certain things in their 
own history : how David had eaten the holy bread 
when he was hungry, and how the priests of the 
Temple were permitted in certain ways to break 
the rules of the Sabbath, and He said, "I tell 
you, One is here who is greater than the temple." 
And He rebuked them for their lack of mercy 
and kindness. Then He left them and went 



108 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

away and entered the synagogue. But they fol- 
lowed after Him, angry and sullen. 2 

In the synagogue was a man whose hand was 
withered; and as soon as the Pharisees saw that 
Jesus desired to heal him, they asked, "Is it right 
to heal on the Sabbath?" hoping to accuse Him 
of breaking the law. But Jesus ignored their 
wicked intentions, and said to them, "Is there a 
man of you with one sheep, who will not catch 
hold of it and lift it out of a pit on the Sabbath, 
if it falls in? And how much more is a man 
worth than a sheep? Thus it is right to do a 
kindness on the Sabbath." Then He command- 
ed the man to stretch forth his hand, and He 
healed it. The angry Pharisees left the syna- 
gogue, and began to consult among themselves 
and with the Herodians, the followers of Herod, 
as to how they could overthrow Jesus. For His 
words and deeds, all proceeding from His deep 
love and His constant effort to show forth the 
love of God, defeated and discomfited them again 
and again. But when Jesus saw that they were 
plotting against Him, He departed, for it was 
not yet the time for His death, for the end of 
His work on earth. 

Soon afterwards a man, not only possessed of 
a daemon but also dumb and blind, was brought 
to Him to be healed. And the stricken man 

3 Matt, xii, 1-10. 



THE SCRIBES AND PHARISEES 109 

spoke and saw, and every beholder was astound- 
ed. But when the Pharisees heard of this mir- 
acle, they said, "This fellow only casts out 
daemons by Beelzebub the prince of daemons." 

Upon this, Jesus first reasoned with them, but 
their minds were closed against Him. Then He 
accused them of blasphemy against the Holy 
Ghost, the Spirit of God, the most awful sin, 
which could never be forgiven. And He said, 
"You brood of vipers, how can you speak good 
when you are evil? For the mouth utters what 
the heart is full of." But they persisted, and 
said that He would have to give them some sign, 
something to prove that He was Messiah. And 
He told them there would be no sign given them 
but His resurrection from the dead after three 
days. But they did not believe Him, and con- 
tinued to hate and oppress Him. 3 

It was shortly before this that Jesus had seen 
a man "sitting at the receipt of custom," a pub- 
lican or tax-gatherer. As taxes were levied on 
the Jews by their hated conquerors, the Romans, 
and as the collectors often robbed the people, tak- 
ing from them more than the law required, they 
were hated by them, and we see the phrase "pub- 
licans and sinners" constantly used in the Gos- 
pels. But when Jesus saw this man, He said to 
him simply, "Follow me," and the man left the 

8 Matt, xii, 34-^0. 



110 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

work which was his daily employment and live- 
lihood, and immediately followed Him. This 
man was Matthew, the apostle who many years 
later became the first biographer of Jesus. 

So Jesus went and sat at a meal in Matthew's 
house with His disciples; and many "tax-gather- 
ers and sinners," who were friends of Matthew's, 
came and joined them, and this gave fresh offense 
to the quibbling Pharisees, who said to the disci- 
ples, "Why does he eat and drink with tax- 
gatherers and sinners?" Jesus did not leave the 
reply to His disciples, whose slow minds would 
probably have been puzzled about what to an- 
swer. He spoke Himself: "Those who are 
strong have no need of a doctor, but those who 
are ill: I have not come to call just men but sin- 
ners." But the obstinacy of the Scribes and 
Pharisees continued, and, as St. Mark says, Jesus 
looked at them "in anger and vexation at their 
obstinacy." 



CHAPTER XV 

JESUS PERFORMS OTHER MIRACLES 

When the meal was over, and Jesus was still 
teaching those who questioned Him, a man came 
hurriedly, and in great grief, to speak to Jesus. 
He was Jairus, a "president of the synagogue," 
that is, chief elder of the congregation, a man of 
influence and authority. But he believed in Je- 
sus' power to heal, and he fell at His feet and im- 
plored Him to come to his house and save his 
little daughter, twelve years old, who lay at the 
point of death. "Do come and lay your hands 
on her, that she may recover and live." 

So Jesus arose and went with Jairus, and a 
large crowd followed them in order to see what 
Jesus would do. But while they were on the 
way, a poor woman, sick of a malady which had 
been incurable for many long years, forced her 
way among the people until she came near to 
Jesus, and with perfect faith she touched Him, 
believing that merely the touch of His garments 
would restore her health. And no sooner was 
her hand laid upon His robe, than she knew that 
she was once more sound and well. Jesus also 
ill 



112 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

knew that someone had touched Him with yearn- 
ing and faith, and though the crowd was dense 
He would not lose trace of one poor sinner who 
had need of Him. So He stopped, and said, 
"Who touched my clothes?" 

The well-meaning, but at that time often igno- 
rant, disciples thought it strange that Jesus 
should ask such a question when many people 
were constantly touching Him as they thronged 
through the street. But Jesus "kept looking 
round to see who had done it." Then the woman 
was frightened lest she had been too presumptu- 
ous, and she "fell down before him, telling him 
all the truth. He said to her 'Daughter, your 
faith has made you well ; go in peace, and be free 
from your complaint.' " 

While He was speaking to the grateful and 
happy woman, messengers came from Jairus' 
house to give the poor father the heartrending 
news that his daughter had died, and they said 
there was no more need to trouble Jesus about it. 
The child was dead, and there was nothing to be 
done but to grieve. But Jesus heard them, and 
He said to the grief -stricken father, "Have no 
fear, only believe." 

So taking with Him none but His disciples 
Peter, James and John, He went to the house of 
Jairus. There everybody, the famify and the 
neighbors, were loudly weeping and wailing, ac- 



JESUS PERFORMS MIRACLES 113 

cording to the custom of the time, and all the 
house was in a tumult. But Jesus spoke calmly 
to them, "Why make a noise and wail? The child 
is not dead, but asleep." They laughed at Him 
scornfully. Could He tell them the child was liv- 
ing, when they saw her, with their own eyes, dead? 
But Jesus turned away all these people, with 
their unseemly clamor, and taking only His three 
disciples and the child's weeping father and moth- 
er, He went into her room. And in the room 
there was a deep silence, the child lying white and 
motionless before them, and the mother's and 
father's tears flowing faster at the sight. But 
Jesus gently approached, and took the girl by 
her little cold hand, and said to her " 'Talitha 
Koum' — which may be translated, 'Little girl, I 
am telling you to rise.' " And the little girl sat 
up, and left her couch, and walked. As she 
could not then know or realize the miracle which 
had been performed upon her, nor who it was 
had done it, perhaps it was natural that she 
should go first to her mother, whose loving arms 
must have been already opened to receive her. 
And Jesus, looking at them, spoke words most 
beautiful in their tender pity and care, their per- 
fect understanding of human weakness, — He 
"told them to give her something to eat." * 
Now one of the Pharisees named Simon, whom 

1 Mark v, 22-43. 



114 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

Jesus had rebuked, asked Him to come to his 
house and take a meal with him. Jesus knew 
that the man only invited Him that He might 
examine His words more minutely and entrap 
Him, and that his hospitality was only a mock- 
ery. But He entered the house and ate with the 
Pharisee. While they sat at table, a soft sound 
of weeping came to Jesus' compassionate ears. It 
was a woman who wept, a sinful woman, who 
knowing that Jesus was within had entered the 
house, and now, seeking His forgiveness and 
help, had knelt down behind Him, weeping. 
Her tears fell on His feet, and she wiped them 
with her long, beautiful hair, and anointed them 
with the costly alabaster box of ointment which 
she had brought for the purpose. She is said to 
been the woman Mary, of the village of Magdala, 
called Mary Magdalene. 

When the Pharisee who was Jesus' host saw 
this, he began to think, If this man were what he 
claims to be, if he were really a prophet, he would 
know that this woman is a sinner, and he would 
not suffer her to soil him with her touch. For 
this was the Pharisaical way of thinking. How 
different from the heart and mind of Jesus! 
Jesus read the Pharisee's thoughts and said, 
"Simon, I have something to say to you." 

The man replied, "Speak, Teacher." Then 
Jesus told him this parable: "There was a money- 



JESUS PERFORMS MIRACLES 115 

lender who had two debtors ; one owed him fifty 
pounds, the other five. As they were unable to 
pay, he freely forgave them both. Tell me, now, 
which of them will love him most?" Simon 
thought a moment and replied that he supposed 
the man would love most who had been forgiven 
the larger debt. Jesus told Simon that he was 
right. Then He turned to the woman and said 
to Simon, " 'You see this woman? When I 
came into your house, you never gave me water 
for my feet, while she has wet my feet with her 
tears and wiped them with her hair; you never 
gave me a kiss, while ever since she came in 
she has kept pressing kisses on my feet ; you never 
anointed my head with oil, while she has anointed 
my feet with perfume. Therefore I tell you, 
many as her sins are, they are forgiven, for her 
love is great; whereas he to whom little is for- 
given has but little love.' And he said to her 
'Your sins are forgiven.' " 

We can fancy how the woman rose up with 
a tear-stained but radiant face, knowing that she 
could begin her life anew in faith and hope. But 
the Pharisee and his friends only said to them- 
selves, "Who is this, to forgive even sins?" Jesus 
saw that their eyes were blind and their hearts 
hard. But he only said to the woman, "Your 
faith has saved you; go in peace." 2 

2 Luke vii, 36-50. 



116 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

Again, when Jesus was once in Jerusalem, He 
was walking by the sheep-market and passed a 
certain sheep-pool which lies there, called the 
Pool of Bethzatha. 

It was a strange sight, this pool, for in the 
porticoes around it lay many sick people — the 
blind, the lame, the paralyzed — waiting for the 
water of the pool to be troubled. For we are 
told that the water of the pool was at times agi- 
tated by natural gases, and it was supposed that 
this spring had curative properties, as such 
springs often have. But the people had a tradi- 
tion that an angel came at intervals, and trou- 
bled the water, which then cured their maladies. 3 

As Jesus passed the pool He perceived lying 
near it a paralyzed man who had been in that ter- 
rible condition for thirty-eight years. For thir- 
ty-eight years he had suffered, and still he hoped 
to be cured, still he crawled to the pool which 
might some day heal him. Jesus paused beside 
this pitiful wrecked being, and said, "Do you 
want your health restored?" 

"Sir," said the cripple, "I have nobody to put 
me into the bath, when the water is disturbed; 
and while I am getting down myself, someone 
else gets in before me." 

With no waste of words, Jesus said, " 'Get up, 

3 Farrar's "Life of Christ," Notes, pp. 282-283. 



JESUS PERFORMS MIRACLES 117 

lift your mat and walk.' And instantly the man 
got well, lifted his mat and started to walk." 

Then Jesus went away immediately, to avoid 
the excitement and pressure of the crowd upon 
Him when they should realize what miracle He 
had done. 

But it was the Sabbath day. So the Jews said 
to the man who was cured, "This is the Sabbath, 
you have no right to be carrying your mat." For 
their petty rules regarding the Sabbath were 
worth more in their eyes than the mighty work 
that had been done, or the happiness of the healed 
man. The poor man said, wondering, "But the 
man who healed me, he told me, 'Lift your mat 
and walk.' " 

And though he also was a Jew and knew the 
Sabbath-day rules, could he have refused to obey 
One who had miraculously healed him? Who 
was this man who cured you? the finical Jews 
asked him. But the man did not know. He 
only knew he had been cured, that he who had 
been impotent for thirty-eight years now walked 
like other men, and that He who had healed him 
had disappeared. 

But Jesus evidently intended to see the man 
once more, to enlighten him. So, finding him in 
the Temple, where he had probably gone to give 
thanks to God for his recovery, Jesus said to 
him, "See, you are well and strong; commit no 



118 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

more sins in case something worse befalls you." 4 
And the man went and told the Jews who it was 
that had cured him, not knowing that by so doing 
he was endangering Jesus' life, for the Jews be- 
gan to plot against Him to kill Him for His 
deeds and His words. Thus Jesus was obliged 
to leave Jerusalem in order to preserve His life 
for the completion of the work which yet re- 
mained for Him to do. 

4 John v, 2-17. 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE DEATH OF JOHN THE BAPTIST 

At this time Herod Antipas, the ruler of Gali- 
lee, leaving John the Baptist to pine in his dark 
prison at Machaerus, was giving magnificent en- 
tertainments in his palace near by. Herod led 
a life of the most extreme luxury. His palaces 
were adorned with furniture of solid metal, with 
candelabra and lamps of the precious Corinthian 
brass, with tables of marble and porphyry. The 
halls "glistened with inlaid stones," and pillars 
carved from a single block of stone supported the 
ceilings. There were numberless apartments 
and costly baths. Feasting, music and dancing 
filled Herod's hours of leisure, and in the inter- 
vals he committed many deeds of cruelty, as his 
father had done before him. 

Herod Antipas had now reigned for many 
years, and to celebrate his birthday he had re- 
solved to give a great feast to the courtiers and 
officials of his palace, and to the men of note 
living in the neighborhood. At this feast, his 
wife's daughter, Salome, who had accompanied 
her mother when she married Herod, danced for 

119 



120 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

the amusement of him and his guests, already- 
half intoxicated with the wine they had drunk. 

Salome was a graceful young girl, and her 
dancing gave such pleasure to the company that 
Herod declared he would give her anything she 
desired, even to the half of his kingdom — which, 
as his kingdom belonged to the Roman emperor 
and not to himself, he might have found some dif- 
ficulty in doing. Salome consulted her mother 
as to what gift she should ask of Herod — per- 
haps she thought of royal jewels for her own 
adornment — but it is not altogether surprising 
that a woman so wicked and murderous as He- 
rodias should tell her daughter to ask Herod for 
the head of John the Baptist, who had declared 
her marriage sinful, had openly preached and 
incited the people against her and her husband, 
and whose existence was always a constant men- 
ace to them. 

When Herod heard this request he was much 
troubled, for in his heart was a fear of John be- 
cause of his goodness and his power over the peo- 
ple, and he is said to have been slightly influenced 
by some of John's teaching. But he had given 
his word to Salome, and would not be put to 
shame before his guests, so — weak and abomin- 
able as he was — he commanded that John should 
be sought out in his dreary prison and his head 
struck off, and that it should be brought there to 



DEATH OF JOHN THE BAPTIST 121 

the palace, in the midst of the gayety and the 
music, and presented to Salome in accordance 
with her — or rather her mother's — wish. 1 A hor- 
rible scene, but not more so than others which oc- 
curred at that period, recorded in histories of the 
time. 

When John's disciples heard of this atrocious 
murder, they sadly came and took the body of 
their beloved leader, and buried him on Mount 
Attarus. Thus ended the life of that great man 
and Messenger of God. As for Herod, he left 
Machasrus after his terrible deed against him 
whom he knew to be wise and virtuous, and went 
to his palace at Tiberias. There, when he heard 
of the miracles of Jesus, he thought that Jesus 
was John the Baptist risen from the dead, and he 
was filled with superstitious fear. 

Meanwhile, Jesus heard of the death of John 
of whom He had said, "I tell you, among the sons 
of women there is none greater than John." 2 
Then, seeing that John was dead, Jesus sent out 
his twelve disciples, whom he had named apostles, 
and commanded them to preach as they went, 
"tell men 'The Reign of heaven is near.' Heal 
the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out 
da3mons," and gave them the power to do this. 
And He told them to take nothing with them but 

1 Matt. xiv, 3-11. 
a Luke vii, 28. 



122 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

the clothes which they wore, and to depend upon 
the people whom they healed and to whom they 
preached, for their subsistence. So they went 
forth and preached and cured the sick every- 
where. 

When they returned from their work, they 
told Jesus "all that they had done," and He took 
them apart into a desert region near the Sea of 
Galilee, that they might rest and talk together. 
But here the people followed Him, as they al- 
ways did, asking Him to talk to them and to heal 
them. And Jesus was sorry for them, for they 
seemed to him like "sheep without a shepherd"; 
so He put aside His own will, as He was continu- 
ally doing, and helped them. 

When evening drew near the apostles began 
to be troubled concerning the people, and where 
they should get food so far from the city, for there 
were about five thousand men there. So they 
advised their Master to send them away before 
the darkness fell. 

But Jesus said calmly, "Give them some food 
yourselves," and the apostles were astonished at 
Him. "We have only got five loaves and two 
fish," they said, perhaps with the slight impa- 
tience which their matter-of-fact minds some- 
times showed when they failed to understand their 
Lord. 

"Make them lie down in rows of about fifty," 



DEATH OF JOHN THE BAPTIST 123 

Jesus said. So the wondering apostles told the 
people to lie down, and they did so, not knowing 
what was to happen. 

"Then taking the five loaves and the two fish, 
and looking up to heaven, he blessed them, broke 
them in pieces and handed them to the disciples 
to set before the crowd. And they all ate and 
had enough. What they had left over was picked 
up, twelve baskets full of fragments." 3 This 
miracle is one of the few which are recorded in 
all the four Gospels. 

Why should we have any difficulty in believing 
this miracle, as some have, when the incompre- 
hensible wonders of nature are all around us — 
those wonders which no power of the best of our 
human intellects can truly explain? Who can 
unravel the secret of the growing seed, which be- 
comes a regal flower ? Who can analyze the pro- 
cess by which a mustard seed, one of the smallest 
of them all, lying in the brown earth, awakes to 
luxuriant life and becomes — in eastern climates 
— a tree, shooting out "great branches; so that 
the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow 
of it," and to which Jesus compared the growth 
of the Kingdom of God, just as we indeed have 
seen it grow through these nearly two thousand 
years ? 

Some say, but those wonders follow natural 

3 Luke ix, 12-17. 



124 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

laws. Well, who made the natural laws? 
God. Then if God's desire is to alter for 
His own purpose those laws, who can say He 
has not the power to alter what He has Himself 
made? And if He have the power to make the 
grain grow and ripen from which the bread is 
made, shall He not have the power to make the 
bread grow if so He wills ? This is indeed "super- 
natural," or above nature, but is not He who 
made nature, supernatural? 

Some say they could believe if they could see 
with their own eyes. But we have to remember 
that many who then saw with their own eyes did 
not even then believe. In the eleventh chapter of 
Matthew Christ rebukes the cities of Khorazin, 
Bethsaida and His own Capharnahum for their 
obstinate unbelief. "Woe to thee, Khorazin! woe 
to thee, Bethsaida ! Had the miracles performed 
in you been performed in Tyre and Sidon" [non- 
Jewish, Phoenician cities] "they would have re- 
pented long ago in sackcloth and ashes." And 
then Jesus said, "I praise thee, Father, Lord of 
heaven and earth, for hiding all this from the 
wise and learned and revealing it to the simple- 
minded," that is, minds that are artless, ingenu- 
ous and unspoiled. The "wise and learned," the 
proud and intellectual, sophisticated, egostistic- 
ally cautious people could not accept that which 
was taken into the humble and open minds of the 



DEATH OF JOHN THE BAPTIST 125 

young in spirit. Yet no philosophy conceived 
by the greatest intellect can disprove these mys- 
teries, which Faith accepts with humility, know- 
ing its own ignorance. 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE TRANSFIGURATION OF JESUS 

It was soon after this that Jesus told the apos- 
tles of the fate which He was to undergo. But 
He commanded them to tell no man, for He 
must fulfill His work, He must suffer, must be 
rejected by the elders and Scribes, He must be 
slain, and must be raised from the dead on the 
third day. This tragical and glorious fate was 
His mission on earth — it was only thus, by giv- 
ing Himself up like a lamb at the sacrifice, that 
He could show all the world what His words and 
His teaching meant. But Peter, loving Jesus 
with a true, if ignorant, warmth of heart, pro- 
tested against His words, cried out that He must 
not be slain. " 'God forbid, Lord,' he said, 'This 
must not be.' " x But Jesus reproved him, and 
said, "Get behind me, you Satan" — that is, go 
from me, you who would tempt me from my duty, 
and lead me to think of my own comfort and 
safety. "You are a hindrance to me ! Your out- 
look is not God's but man's." And He added, 

1 Matt, xvi, 22. 

126 



TRANSFIGURATION OF JESUS 127 

"If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny 
himself, take up his cross, and so follow me." 2 

About eight days after this, as St. Luke tells 
us, Jesus "took Peter, John and James, and 
went up the hillside to pray." Scholars explain 
that this "hillside" was probably Mount Hermon, 
known as the "holy" mountain. On the northern 
limit of Galilee it lifts its snow-covered head, with 
its "bare and jagged crest," to a height of eleven 
thousand feet. Below this crest there are dense 
forests of oak, below that a rocky region, and 
still lower, near its base, stretches a green 
meadow land. 

Up into this great and lonely mountain at the 
close of day Jesus had led the three apostles whom 
He had chosen to be witnesses of a wonderful 
thing, a sign from Heaven which was to prepare 
Jesus for His future martyrdom. They were 
all weary, and the apostles yielded to the heavi- 
ness which overcame them, and lying on the 
ground with their cloaks wrapped around them, 
as was their custom, and also the custom of their 
Master, they fell asleep in the dusk and silence, 
while Jesus prayed. 

But suddenly, out of their heavy slumber, they 
were awakened by a strange and dazzling light. 
With their eyes half blinded in this great radi- 
ance, they sat up, fully awakened by the sight 

* Matt, xvi, 23-24. 



128 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

before them. They saw Jesus still praying, but 
as he prayed ''the appearance of his face altered, 
and his dress turned dazzling white." 3 What 
must have been their amazement and terror to 
see two forms, radiant in this supernatural light, 
standing with Jesus — the prophets Moses and 
Elias, who spoke with Him of His coming death. 
We can imagine how Peter and John and James 
must have crouched down in awe upon the earth 
at this transfiguration of One with whom they 
lived daily, and who had hitherto appeared out- 
wardly a man like themselves. They remained 
speechless and trembling while the glorious vi- 
sion lasted, but as it faded, as the forms of the 
heavenly visitants departed, and the bright light 
died away, Peter sprang up impulsively and 
asked Jesus that they might remain always in 
this holy spot, and build three tabernacles, one 
for Him, one for Moses and one for Elijah, "not 
knowing what he was saying," as St. Luke ex- 
plains, for he was overwrought by excitement. 
But even as Peter impetuously spoke, a cloud of 
light came over them, and the apostles were filled 
with fear. "But a voice came from the cloud, 
'This is my Son, my Chosen one, listen to him.' " 4 
Then they fell in terror, face downward to the 
earth, and lay still. "When the voice ceased, 

8 Luke ix, 29. 
4 Luke ix, 34-35. 



TRANSFIGURATION OF JESUS 129 

they found themselves alone with Jesus." Only 
the darkness round them now, and the deep si- 
lence of the night, and above the shining stars. 
But still the apostles feared to move. Overawed 
by this heavenly visitation, they lay prostrate and 
motionless on the earth. "But Jesus came for- 
ward and touched them, saying, 'Rise, have no 
fear.' " 5 

It seems that this event may have filled the 
hearts of the disciples with pride, and their minds 
with thoughts of rank and power, for if their 
Master had such heavenly association with the 
great prophets Moses and Elijah, should not 
they, His faithful chosen followers, also have 
great future glory? For they could not as yet 
realize either the divinity of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, or the lesson of humility which He con- 
stantly taught them. So "a dispute arose among 
them, as to which of them was the greatest." 6 
Then St. Matthew in his eighteenth chapter tells 
us that afterwards, when they had descended 
from the mountain, Jesus "called a child, and 
set it among them." And He told them that, 
so far from reigning proudly in the Kingdom of 
Heaven, they would have to become as humble 
as this little child before they could even enter. 

5 Matt, xvii, 7-8. 

6 Luke ix, 46. 



130 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

"Whosoever humbles himself like this child, he 
is the greatest in the Realm of heaven." 

How strange these words must have sounded 
in their ears! 

Then Jesus went on to speak of those who 
humble themselves and become as little children, 
those who believe. And He said, "But whoever 
is a hindrance to one of these little ones, who be- 
lieve in me, better for him to have a great mill- 
stone hung round his neck and be sunk in the 
deep sea." 

Once, too, when some little children were 
brought to Him to receive His blessing, the dis- 
ciples rebuked the parents for disturbing Jesus; 
but He spoke those beautiful words which can 
never be forgotten, "Let the children alone, do 
not stop them from coming to me : the Realm of 
heaven belongs to such as these. Then he laid 
his hands on them and went upon his way." 7 

So He taught them not only humility in them- 
selves but to have respect for humility in others. 
From this lesson He passed to another. He 
showed them that even the sinful, whom they 
might despise, were as valuable to God as the 
virtuous, nay, even more the object of His con- 
cern. And to illustrate this He told them the 
beautiful parable of the lost sheep, which the 
shepherd seeks and seeks in the lonely mountain, 

7 Matt, xix, 13-15. 



TRANSFIGURATION OF JESUS 131 

and when he finds it is happier than he was over 
the sheep which had not strayed away at all. 
Then, having shown them how God seeks the lost 
sheep, the sinful ones, to save and forgive them, 
He taught them that they too must forgive one 
another. Peter then asked Him, " 'Lord, how 
often is my brother to sin against me and be for- 
given? Up to seven times?' Jesus said to him, 
'Seven times? I say, seventy times seven!' " 
And to make this still more clear to them, He 
told them the story of the king and his wicked 
servant, which is recorded in St. Matthew's eight- 
eenth chapter. Thus He taught them to be hum- 
ble, not to judge one another, and to forgive; 
and you will see with what divine perfection He 
Himself followed these precepts when the time 
came for Him, the loving and merciful, to suffer 
at the hands of unloving and unmerciful men, 
and to die. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THE PARABLE OF THE PRODIGAL SON 

Another parable which Jesus told to the people 
— St. Luke says to the tax-gatherers and sinners, 
to teach them God's mercy and forgiveness and 
love — was the story of the prodigal son. 

There was a certain man who had prospered in 
life. He had land, and cattle and money and 
many servants; but, above all that, he had two 
sons whom he dearly loved. The elder of these 
sons was steady and quiet, and faithful in the 
service of his father, in whose business he was em- 
ployed. He seemed to be a good and virtuous 
young man. 

The younger son was of a different disposition. 
He was restless, and had a strong desire to leave 
his father's home and to taste liberty and inde- 
pendence, and see what things he might see in the 
great broad world of which he was always dream- 
ing. So finally, when this restlessness and wish 
for travel became too strong for him to resist, 
he went to his father and begged him to give him 
at once his inheritance, that he might go and 
travel and see the world. The father was sad 

132 



PARABLE OF PRODIGAL SON 133 

at the thought of his child's leaving him, 
but, being of a kind and indulgent nature, he 
gave him his share of money, advising him to be 
prudent and careful, and let him go, with his 
blessing. 

So the younger son took all his money and 
whatever was needful for his journey, and went 
gayly away to see the world. And he traveled 
many days until he reached a country which 
pleased him, and there he decided to remain and 
enjoy his life. He began to live in a riotous and 
sinful manner, his companions were wicked peo- 
ple, and he forgot the parting words of his father, 
and his father's goodness to him, and thought 
only of amusing himself by day and by night. 
Thus he continued until one day he found, to his 
consternation, that he had spent all his money, 
and was only a poor young man in a strange land. 
It is probable that he asked help of the compan- 
ions with whom he had dissipated his money and 
his time, but they had no respect or pity for him, 
and he was left desolate. 

About the same time, there was a famine in 
that country, and he was obliged to seek any 
work, even the lowest, which would supply him 
with daily bread. So he went to a man who had 
land and beasts, and asked for work. The only 
work the man could give him was to feed the 
swine in the fields, but the young man's pride 



134 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

was now so reduced by hunger and shame that 
he accepted the employment, and went to the 
field and fed the swine. And he was so weakened 
by hunger that he envied the swine the coarse 
food, the husks, which he gave them, and would 
have been glad to eat it himself. 

Then he began to see the folly of his actions. 
Sitting alone in the field with the swine, wretched 
and humiliated and disillusioned, he thought with 
bitter tears of the kind father and comfortable 
home he had left, and he said to himself that he, 
the son of his father, was not even as decently fed 
and clad as his father's humblest servants. And 
his pride rose within him; but as it rose it was 
overcome by his shame and humiliation, and his 
consciousness of sin; and as he thought of his 
good father his heart grew humble and melted 
within him, and he sprang suddenly to his feet 
among the swine and exclaimed, I will go home 
to my father! He was always good and loving 
— he even let me go away against his own wishes. 
Oh, surely he will not be unkind to me, but he 
will let me be one of his servants, that is all I shall 
ask of him, for I am not worthy any longer to be 
his son. And his head dropped down with 
shame on his bosom. 

Now in the meantime, his father had grieved 
many days for the son who was gone from him, 
and for whom he had a great tenderness. But he 



PARABLE OF PRODIGAL SON 135 

heard no word from him, and his heart was heavy; 
for though he loved his elder son too, yet he 
yearned for the younger one who was lost, and 
perhaps dead. When the rain fell he thought 
of him, wondering if he were in shelter, and 
when the storm came he wished his wandering 
son safe by the warm hearthside. But no word 
of him came. 

One day the father stood looking down the 
road that led far off into the world, the road along 
which his willful son had left him, when he saw 
approaching him, slowly and timidly, a young 
man clad in ragged garments, with hollow cheeks 
and eyes downcast, as if he dared not lift them 
and look into anybody's face. But as the father 
gazed attentively at this stranger, he gave a loud 
cry and ran forward and embraced and kissed the 
poor wanderer. For it was his son. 

Then the young man wept, and told his father 
of his sin and his repentance, and asked to be his 
servant, for he knew that he was not worthy any 
more to be his son. All that glory and happiness 
which he used to have, he knew now that he had 
not appreciated, and had only thrown it away. 

But the father embraced his son again, weep- 
ing with joy and relief; and paying no heed to 
the young man's pitiful, stammering words, he 
called to the servants to bring a beautiful robe for 
him to wear, and a fine ring for his hand, and 



136 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

shoes, and all that he needed and that the house 
afforded ; and then he commanded them to bring 
the calf that had been fattening for the house- 
hold repast, and to kill and roast it and make 
a feast for his starving child. For, he said, joy- 
fully, I thought my son dead, but see ! he is alive ! 

Meanwhile the elder son was out in the field, 
attending to his labor, and when he had finished 
he came near to the house, and was surprised to 
hear the sounds of music and dancing and merri- 
ment. So he asked one of the servants the mean- 
ing of this uproar, for he could not understand it. 
The servant explained to him that his lost brother 
had come home in a sad condition, and that his 
father had ordered the fatted calf to be killed to 
feast him, in thanksgiving that he was once more 
safe home. 

Then the elder brother, instead of rejoicing 
at his brother's return, was angry, and he would 
not even enter the house, but remained outside, 
resentful and sullen. So when the servants told 
the happy father that his elder son was angry 
and would not enter the house, he went out in 
amazement to see what was the matter. 

And the selfish son rebuked his father and said 
bitterly, I have worked honestly for you for 
many years, and obeyed you and done my duty, 
but you have never killed a fatted calf for me, 
nor ever given me even a kid to feast my friends. 



PARABLE OF PRODIGAL SON 137 

But as soon as my brother comes, after spending 
all his money in sin and evil living, you make a 
feast for him at once, and kill a fatted calf for 
him! 

The father was deeply hurt, and looked re- 
proachfully at his son. You are always here 
with me, he said, and you know well that all that 
I have is yours. At any time you could make 
a feast if you so desired. But, don't you see? 
your erring brother has come! He is here once 
more, safe at home. It was but right that we 
should rejoice over his return and celebrate it. 
And then, his voice thrilling with joy, he said, 
Your brother that we thought dead is living; he 
was lost to us, and lo, he is found ! 

Then he returned to his repentant son, and the 
words were like a song in his heart, "And was 
lost, and is found, and was lost, and is found." 

So Jesus told the people the story of this good 
and compassionate human father as a type of our 
Father in Heaven. 



CHAPTER XIX 

JESUS FEEDS THE FOUR THOUSAND 

We have already heard how Jesus sometimes 
needed to be alone, that He might pray and 
renew His strength in silence and peace. He 
felt this need on the day when He fed the im- 
mense crowd of people with five loaves and two 
fish. So He commanded His disciples to take 
ship and cross the Sea of Galilee to Bethsaida, 
near Capharnahum, on the opposite shore, and 
He Himself remained behind and sent away the 
people, after which He went up into a mountain 
to pray. 

The evening came, and night drew on, but as 
it grew darker a contrary wind began to blow 
and seriously hindered the disciples in their row- 
ing. They worked hard at the oars, but the wind 
blew against them and they made no progress. 
It grew darker and darker, and they were still far 
from land, when suddenly in the darkness they 
saw a form, as if of a man, walking upon the 
water, and thinking it a spirit they were afraid, 
and cried out. Then a voice, that Voice of such 

138 



JESUS FEEDS FOUR THOUSAND 139 

strength and tenderness, came to them across the 
water, "Courage, it is I, have no fear." 

And Jesus, for it was He, came into the boat 
among them. Then the wind grew cairn; and 
the disciples were rilled with wonder. 1 

But no sooner had they landed in the plain of 
Gennesaret, than the people recognized Jesus, 
having seen or heard of His miracles of healing, 
and ran eagerly to bring their sick to be cured. 
As Jesus went through the little villages they 
laid their sick in the street, on the roadsides, any- 
where, that they might only touch His garments, 
"and all who touched Him recovered." What 
a beautiful scene of love and beneficence that 
must have been ! 

But certain Scribes and Pharisees had come 
from Jerusalem to spy upon Jesus, as they were 
constantly doing, and one day, seeing some of the 
disciples eat bread without first washing their 
hands — thus breaking the Jewish law — they 
asked Jesus why His disciples did this. Jesus 
shamed them for their hypocrisy. He told them 
that they cared more for the washing of hands, or 
the "washing of cups and jugs" than they did 
for being good. Then He gathered the people 
all around Him — for He was ever mindful of 
each opportunity to instruct them, to show them 
the difference between seeming to be good and 

a Mark vi, 45-51. 



140 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

being good — and told them that nothing which 
enters a man can harm him spiritually, but what 
goes out of him. For that which enters into a 
man does not enter his heart, but that which goes 
out of him — his words, his deeds — comes out from 
his heart, and if that is evil, then is the man 
harmed. "It is what comes from him that defiles 
him." He taught always that the form and 
ceremony of religion is not enough, but to do 
justice and mercy, and to love one another, that 
is to fulfill the law. 

After this Jesus went northward into Phoeni- 
cia, to the country around Tyre and Sidon, popu- 
lous and busy cities, celebrated for their excellent 
purple dye made from a peculiar shellfish — the 
Tyrian purple. In this country Jesus entered 
a house, and wanted to remain quietly there, but 
"he could not escape notice." So there came 
a Greek woman, of the Syrophcenicians, whose 
daughter was ill, begging Him to heal her child 
and falling in supplication at His feet. But 
Jesus, perhaps to test her faith and her spirit 
(and, as Farrar suggests, to test the spirit of His 
disciples lest they be too narrowly Jewish), told 
her that He must heal first the people of His 
own land. "It is not fair to take the children's 
bread and throw it to the dogs," He said. And 
He spoke in this way because she belonged to a 
nation of idolaters. But though the poor woman 



JESUS FEEDS FOUR THOUSAND 141 

was ignorant, yet love and solicitude for her sick 
child, and the divine effect of Jesus' holy pres- 
ence, filled her heart with humility, and she re- 
plied, "No, sir, but under the table the dogs do 
pick up the children's crumbs." Then Jesus said, 
"Well, go your way; the daemon has left your 
daughter, since you have said that." 

And when the woman reached her home, she 
found her daughter well. 

Jesus now returned to the coast of the Sea of 
Galilee, and on His way the people brought Him 
a deaf and dumb man, beseeching Him to cure 
him. St. Mark tells us exactly what Jesus did 
in healing this man. First, He took him apart 
from the people, and when He was alone with 
him, He "put his fingers into the man's ears, 
touched his tongue with saliva, and looking up to 
heaven with a sigh he said to him, Ephphatha, 
(which means, Open). Then his ears were [at 
once] opened and his tongue freed from its fetter 
— he began to speak correctly." 2 

Such deeds amazed the people, and they would 
not leave Jesus but followed Him everywhere, 
carrying their little baskets of food on their arms. 
One day Jesus saw that their scanty provisions 
were exhausted. They had indeed been follow- 
ing Him for three days, having now no means of 
replenishing their supplies; and Jesus told the 

2 Mark vii, 32-35. 



142 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

disciples that He feared to send them away fast- 
ing, as many of them had come from long dis- 
tances, and being without food might faint by 
the wayside. "How many loaves have you got?" 
He asked the disciples, and they answered 
"Seven." They had also "a few small fish." So 
Jesus commanded the people, of whom there were 
four thousand, to recline on the ground. Then 
taking the seven loaves He said grace over them, 
broke them and gave them to His disciples, and 
these gave the bread to the people. Then He 
blessed the fish, and commanded the disciples to 
give them also to the people. And these seven 
loaves and a few fishes were enough for the four 
thousand: "So the people ate and were satisfied, 
and they picked up seven baskets of fragments 
which were left over" — these same baskets which 
the people had been carrying on their arms as 
they eagerly followed in His footsteps. 

Wonderful feeding of four thousand by seven 
loaves ! But is it any more really wonderful than 
the fruitful increase of a field of grain? Does 
not the farmer plant a little sack of seed, and does 
not this sack of seed grow and increase and feed 
thousands of people? Are not all the works of 
God works of wonder, and is it not merely that 
those which we are accustomed to see we think 
little of, and those we are not accustomed to see 
we find it hard to believe in? For there is noth- 



JESUS FEEDS FOUR THOUSAND 143 

ing to which our curious human minds accustom 
themselves so readily as to those very marvels 
which cause us such skepticism and astonishment 
when they are novelties. The telegraph, the tele- 
phone, the motor car, the aeroplane, the radio- 
phone and all the wireless systems — how easily 
we grow used to them and come to regard them 
as commonplace. Are we not very much like the 
Scribes and Pharisees who saw His actual deeds, 
and yet constantly asked Him for some other 
"sign" that He was indeed the Christ? But He 
told them they should receive no other sign. 
Their hearts were hard with pride and egotism, 
and no sign would convince them. "But he 
sighed in spirit, and said, 'Why does this gener- 
ation demand a Sign? I tell you truly, No Sign 
shall be given this generation.' " 3 

After this, St. Mark tells us, He went to the 
towns around Cassarea Philippi, and it was on 
this journey that Jesus asked the disciples, "Who 
do people say I am?" 

After all that He had done, the miraculous 
cures, the other miracles, the divine words He had 
spoken — after all, the disciples could only tell 
Him that the people thought He was John the 
Baptist risen up again, or Elijah, or some other 
of the prophets. This was apparently all the re- 

3 Mark viii, 12. 



144 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

suit of His labor, earthly and divine. Then He 
asked them, sadly perhaps, "And who do you 
say I am? Peter replied 'You are the Christ.' " 
Thus Peter testified then, as the Church testifies 
now and everywhere. 

About this time a man among the multitudes 
brought his son to Jesus, telling Him that the 
child could not speak, and that a "dumb spirit" 
possessed him so that he foamed at the mouth 
and gnashed with his teeth — a horrible malady 
enough. The man explained that he had asked 
the disciples to heal his child, and they could not. 
Jesus said then, "O faithless generation, how 
long must I still be with you? how long have I to 
bear with you? Bring him to me," and the father 
brought the child who, as soon as he came near, 
fell on the ground in a fit. The father, distressed 
at his son's suffering, cried out to Jesus, "If you 
can do anything, do help us, do have pity on us." 
Jesus, observing the man's doubt, replied, " 'If 
you can!' Anything can be done for one who 
believes." 

The wretched father began to weep, and being 
an honest man said, "I do believe; help my un- 
belief." I want to believe, O help me to believe! 

Jesus then spoke to the son, rebuking the evil 
spirit that possessed him, and the boy became as 
if he were dead, and many thought him dead. 



JESUS FEEDS FOUR THOUSAND 145 

"But taking his hand, Jesus raised him and he 
got up." 4 

Afterwards, the disciple John told Jesus that 
they had seen a man healing people in His name, 
and they forbade him to do it because he was not 
one of them. But Jesus rebuked him. "Do not 
stop him," He said; "no one who performs any 
miracle in my name will be ready to speak evil 
of me. He who is not against us is for us. Who- 
ever gives you a cup of water because you belong 
to Christ, I tell you he shall not miss his reward." 
Thus He warned them against narrowness and 
selfishness of spirit. 

*Mark ix, 27. 



CHAPTER XX 

THE PARABLE OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN 

Jesus now preached to the people in the syna- 
gogue at Capharnahum, His own adopted city. 
St. John, in his sixth chapter gives us the sub- 
stance of this sermon, and tells us the sad result 
which followed. 

Jesus tried to make the people understand that 
it is the spirit, not the body, which is of impor- 
tance. But they clamored for bodily things, 
things which they could see and feel. They 
wanted worldly success for their Messiah. They 
asked Him to give them bread from heaven to 
eat, as their ancestors had been given bread in 
the desert, which fell from heaven, the "manna" 
of the Old Testament. Jesus told them that He 
was the true "bread of God," which came down 
from heaven to give "life to the world," saying 
that those who came to Him would never suffer 
from hunger, nor would those who believed in 
Him suffer from thirst. He meant, of course, 
that we are fed by our faith ; that our faith gives 
us strength and comf ort of spirit, as material food 
feeds our bodies. The Jews, however, objected 

146 



PARABLE OF GOOD SAMARITAN 147 

to His saying that He was "the bread of life," 
and "I have come down from heaven." They 
repeated again their old stupid question, "Is this 
not Jesus, the son of Joseph? We know his 
father and mother. How can he claim now, 'I 
have come down from heaven' ?" 

Jesus told them not to "murmur" amongst 
themselves. He reminded them that the manna 
which their ancestors ate did not keep them alive, 
for were they not all dead? It was not the 
earthly life which He would prolong for them, 
but the bread which He gave would give them 
eternal life after the earthly death. He tried to 
make them see that the bread He gave was His 
own body which He would sacrifice for them in 
His death, and that from His sacrifice of Him- 
self they would learn the faith which would give 
them immortal life. But, so far from being able 
to understand Him, they only said, "How can he 
give us his flesh to eat?" Finally they were so 
incensed against Him, because they did not un- 
derstand, that many of those who had been fol- 
lowing Him, followed Him no more. They con- 
tradicted Him and left Him. 

Then Jesus turned to His twelve apostles, 
those who were nearest and dearest to Him, and 
uttered these pathetic words: "You do not want 
to go, too?" Peter replied with his characteristic 
enthusiasm, even in apparent defeat, "Lord, who 



148 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

are we to go to ? You have got words of eternal 
life, and we believe, we are certain, that you are 
the holy One of God." 

To whom indeed should we go, if not to Christ? 
Where, in the history of our world, is there one 
above Him in the very purity of perfection? 
Every prophet of every other form of religious 
belief, when compared with Him, either historic- 
ally, philosophically or morally, has always been 
found in some way inferior to Him. 

But Jesus — and it would seem that the deser- 
tion of His other followers had made Him sor- 
rowful — reminded them that, though Peter spoke 
loyally, one of them should betray Him, meaning, 
as we know, His apostle Judas. 1 

While Jesus was still in Capharnahum, news 
came of the murder of certain Galileans in Jeru- 
salem by Pontius Pilate, the Roman Procurator 
of Judaea. Pilate was a bloodthirsty and con- 
scienceless man, like the Herods, and the Jews 
feared and hated him. Jesus was also warned at 
this time that Herod Antipas, the ruler of Gali- 
lee, designed to kill Him, but He received this 
warning with indifference and contempt. "Go 
and tell that fox," He said, "I cast out daemons, 
and perform cures today and tomorrow, and on 
the third day I complete my task." Meaning, I 
shall continue my work until it is finished, and 

1 John vi, 27-71. 



PARABLE OF GOOD SAMARITAN 149 

nothing can prevent me before my time is really 
come. 

But Jesus knew now that the last months of 
His work were drawing near, and that He must 
go to Jerusalem and meet the fate prepared for 
Him, and to which He willingly submitted for 
the sake of mankind, both the righteous and the 
sinful. He knew that love conquers evil — that 
His love for the sinner turns back that sinner's 
heart from his sin, and makes him good. Some 
people say, if God is all-powerful, why should sin 
and evil exist at all? To this we can only reply 
that we, being mortal creatures, cannot fully 
understand the design of God in this world — 
any more than we can fully understand the mys- 
teries of life and of death ; but we can and do see 
that love conquers evil, that virtue conquers sin, 
so that though evil is allowed to exist, it exists 
only as an inferior thing, a thing which is con- 
stantly being conquered and destroyed by the 
superior and stronger power of love. 

So Jesus now left Galilee, where He was re- 
jected after all, and journeyed to Jerusalem. 
But He traveled slowly, preaching, teaching and 
healing the sick all the way. At first He sent 
messengers ahead to a little village of Samaria, 
to prepare people to receive Him. But these 
people, on learning that He was going to Jeru- 
salem, because of their enmity with the Jews 



150 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

would not receive Him at all. The apostles 
James and John, whom Jesus had once named 
the "sons of thunder," were angry at this disre- 
spect for their Lord, and asked Jesus if they 
should cause fire to descend from heaven and de- 
stroy these unkind and inhospitable people. But 
Jesus rebuked them, telling them that they did 
not at all understand. "For the Son of man is 
not come to destroy men's lives, but to save 
them." In this way they were constantly mis- 
understanding. Though they were with Jesus 
continually they still failed to realize the beauty 
and lofty purity of His teaching. So is it hard 
for us all to understand, being so far above us. 

They went therefore to another village in Sa- 
maria, and on the way a man came to Jesus and 
said, "I will follow you anywhere." But Jesus 
replied, "The foxes have their holes, the wild 
birds have their nests ; but the Son of man has no- 
where to lay his head." Yes, Jesus had no home, 
nor did He ever possess a single bit of the earth 
where He labored for us. 

We are not told anything further about this 
man, but no doubt he followed Jesus, though 
there was no comfort, no earthly success, to be 
won thereby. Indeed, many had followed Him 
as He left Galilee, to hear His preaching and to 
be healed by Him, and it cheered Him to see that 
some still came to Him to receive what He was 



PARABLE OF GOOD SAMARITAN 151 

so willing to give. So now He sent forward 
seventy of these disciples, two by two, into every 
place where He intended to go, that the people 
might be prepared for Him and His followers, 
and telling them to heal on the way. He said to 
these disciples, "He who listens to you, listens 
to me, he who rejects you rejects me, and he 
who rejects me rejects him who sent me." 

This journey of the disciples was more suc- 
cessful, and they returned to Jesus full of en- 
thusiasm. Then Jesus rejoiced. He was over- 
joyed to see His disciples doing their work suc- 
cessfully. 

One day a lawyer, one of the "wise and pru- 
dent," came to Jesus to question Him and to 
draw Him into some error if possible. The law- 
yer asked, "Teacher, what am I to do to inherit 
eternal life?" Jesus, seeing the man's motive, 
ask^d him what he found in the law on that sub- 
ject. And the man answered, "You must love 
the Lord your God with your whole heart, with 
your whole soul, with your whole strength, and 
with your whole mind; also your neighbor as 
yourself." " 'A right answer!' Jesus said; 'do 
that and you will live." But the lawyer desired 
to confuse Jesus, if possible, and asked, "But 
who is my neighbor?" 

To answer him Jesus did as His custom was 



152 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

— He told him a parable, and this was the story 
of the good Samaritan: 

A man once set forth on a journey from Jeru- 
salem to Jericho. It was a short journey but a 
dangerous one, for the road was frequented by 
robbers who had no pity upon travelers, but took 
all the money and goods they had on their camels 
or asses, and often killed them. So, as this man 
traveled along he had the ill fortune to meet a 
party of these thieves of the road, who not only 
stole his money but even his clothes, and when he 
attempted to defend himself they wounded him 
also. Then they went away, and left the poor 
man suffering and half dead in the road. 

As he lay there groaning, a priest came by. 
He saw the man, and heard his groans — but per- 
haps he was too busy to stop. He passed by and 
left the victim in the road, without help. 

Later a Levite, who is a subordinate priest, 
came along, and he stopped and looked at the 
poor naked and wounded man, who now, seeing 
the Levite pause, had hope of succor. But the 
Levite, who perhaps was stupid and saw no 
means of helping a man in such a plight, the 
Levite too went away and left him. 

But after a while a Samaritan came by, and 
when he saw the poor creature lying in the road 
groaning, he was sorry for him, and his sorrow 
was not only an emotion of sympathy, which is 






PARABLE OF GOOD SAMARITAN 153 

very kind but does no practical good, it was a 
pity which passed at once into a desire to help 
and to save. It was like Jesus' own pity. So 
the Samaritan took from his goods some cloth 
and oil and wine, and stooping over the suffering 
man he bound up his wounds, applying to them 
the oil and the wine; and then, tenderly raising 
him, he set him on the beast which he had himself 
been riding, and walking by his side he journeyed 
onward with him until they came to an inn, where 
he carried the man indoors and tended and cared 
for him. The next day, as he was obliged to 
leave the man and continue on his own road, he 
said to the landlord of the inn, Here are two 
pence. See that this wounded man has all that 
he needs, and if you are obliged to spend more 
for him, do so, and I will pay you when I come 
back this way. 

So, when Jesus had told this story, which you 
can read in the tenth chapter of Luke, He said to 
the lawyer, "Which of these three men, in your 
opinion, proved a neighbor to the man who fell 
among the robbers?" And the lawyer was com- 
pelled to reply, "The man who took pity on him." 
Then, instead of merely saying, Therefore, when 
anyone behaves in a kind and neighborly manner 
to you, you must be grateful and love him as 
yourself, which may have seemed to be the moral 
of the story, Jesus said to the lawyer, "Go, and 



154 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

do the same." Don't think of how another may- 
be a true neighbor to you, but of how you may 
be a true neighbor to him. As Emerson aptly 
said, nearly two thousand years later, "The only 
way to have a friend, is to be one." 

Thus the wily lawyer failed, as everybody al- 
ways did, to turn Jesus aside from His own 
divine way of teaching. 



CHAPTER XXI 

JESUS CONTINUES HIS LAST JOURNEY 

It is estimated that Jesus spent about two 
months in this last long journey from Galilee to 
Persea, and from Persea into Judaea to Jerusalem, 
and during this time many interesting events oc- 
curred, He told many parables and taught many 
lessons, of great numbers of which we have no 
record at all. As St. John says in the last para- 
graph of his Gospel: "Now there is much 
else that Jesus did — so much, that if it were 
written down in detail, I do not suppose that 
the world itself could hold the written records." 

We say "long journey," speaking by compari- 
son; for, as has been said, the distance from 
Nazareth in Galilee to Jerusalem in Judaea was 
but eighty Roman miles. But Jesus went aside 
into Perasa, and stopped by the way teaching and 
doing works of mercy. Probably He made 
nearly all of the journey on foot. 

Now one day, in the course of this journey, 
there came to Jesus a young man who apparently 
desired to be taught, and who said, "Good 
teacher, what must I do, to inherit life eternal?" 

155 



156 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

First rebuking him gently for calling Him 
"good," for Jesus said there was none good but 
God, He told the young man that to have eternal 
life he must keep the commandments. The 
young man asked, Which commandments is it 
necessary for me to keep? Jesus repeated the 
commandments as to murder, adultery, stealing, 
bearing false witness, defrauding, honoring our 
parents. 

The young man appears to have been a virtu- 
ous young man. " 'Teacher,' he said, 'I have ob- 
served all these commands from my youth!' " 

Jesus, as He looked at him, loved him ; but saw 
at once where his weakness lay. So He said, 
"There is one thing you want, go and sell all you 
have; give the money to the poor, and you will 
have treasure in heaven; then come, take up the 
cross, and follow me." 1 

But the young man was very rich, and he loved 
his wealth and the comfort and power it gave 
him, and he could not bear to give it up. So he 
would not, and "he went sadly away." He was 
not a bad young man — he desired to be good — 
but he had not learned to love God with all his 
heart and mind and soul, for when we do that we 
know spiritually, we know in our hearts, that we 
would be willing to give up everything for Him 
even though we may not be actually called upon 

1 Mark x, 21. 



JESUS CONTINUES JOURNEY 157 

to do it. But the young man realized, sadly 
enough, that when called upon he was not willing. 

After he had gone Jesus said to the disciples, 
"My sons, how difficult it is [for those who rely 
on money] to get into the Realm of God ! It is 
easier for a camel to get through a needle's eye 
than for a rich man to get into the Realm of 
God." Jesus meant that it is more difficult for 
a man who has wealth and power to renounce it 
and become humble and self-sacrificing, than it 
is for a man who is already poor, and therefore 
has less temptation to fall into the sin of pride. 
It is more difficult for a rich man, who is deceived 
by his own apparent greatness, to realize that 
he is only one of God's creatures like all the rest. 
The lesson of humility is harder for him to learn 
than for a powerless poor man. 

When Jesus said this to the disciples, they 
were very much astonished. "Then who ever can 
be saved?" they said to themselves. But Jesus 
"looked at them and said, 'For men it is impos- 
sible, but not for God: anything is possible for 
God.' " 2 God's love and unending mercy can 
soften the hardest heart, and bring men to Him 
through any difficulties whatever. 

Jesus also taught them the value of earnest- 
ness and perseverance in our prayers for spir- 
itual help. Suppose, He said, that a man should 

•Mark x, 23-27. 



158 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

go at midnight to borrow three loaves of bread 
from his friend, explaining that a guest had 
arrived unexpectedly at his house, and he had 
no bread to give him. The friend at first might 
refuse. "The door is now shut," he might say, 
"and my children are with me in bed; I cannot 
rise and give thee." But, if the man who 
knocked should persist urgently in his request, 
his friend would rise and give him the loaves of 
bread. Then Jesus said, "Ask, and the gift will 
be yours, seek, and you will find ; knock, and the 
door will open to you." And again, "What 
father among you, if asked by his son for a loaf, 
will hand him a stone? . . . Well, if for all your 
evil you know how to give your children what is 
good, how much more will your Father give the 
Holy Spirit from heaven to those who ask 
him?" 3 Later He said to His disciples. "All 
that ever you ask in prayer you shall have, if 
you believe." 4 Some of us pray most un- 
worthily. Our feeling is half skeptical, and 
we think — though we are hardly conscious of 
it sometimes — "Now, I have prayed — let us see if 
He will answer." This is exactly the attitude of 
the Scribes and Pharisees toward Jesus. Are we 
then no better than they? And have we not an 
example, in the history of the sick woman who 

3 Luke xi, 5-13. 

4 Matt, xxi, 22. 



JESUS CONTINUES JOURNEY 159 

touched Jesus in the crowd, and He knew at once 
that Faith had touched Him — is this not like sin- 
cerity in prayer, and that God knows if we be 
praying honestly or deceitfully, or even deceiving 
ourselves? 

When Jesus and His disciples reached Eph- 
raim, a town in southern Samaria, they rested 
there, and then left it to join the long caravan 
of pilgrims coming from Galilee to Jerusalem 
to attend the Feast of Dedication, celebrated 
about the twentieth of December. This feast, 
like that of the Passover, lasted eight days, and 
during and after this brief period, though Jesus 
taught some of His greatest lessons, and per- 
formed some of His greatest miracles, the shadow 
of His approaching death only grew darker 
around Him. The Chief Priests, Scribes and 
Pharisees haunted His steps, and sought to draw 
the people's hatred upon Him, that they might 
be justified in ridding the land of so dangerous 
an enemy to the established order of things. 

On reaching Jerusalem Jesus had gone to the 
Temple, and was walking in Solomon's Porch — 
so called because the material of which it was built 
had been a part of the ancient temple of Solomon 
— when suddenly the Pharisees came to Him, 
and began to put questions which they intended 
should trouble Him. How long will you keep 
us in doubt? they asked. "If you are the Christ, 



160 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

tell us plainly." And Jesus replied patiently, 
"I have told you, but you do not believe; the 
deeds I do in the name of my Father testify 
to me." . . . "I and my Father are one " 

This statement, that He and God were one 
and the same, was just what the Jews were wait- 
ing for Him to say, that they might accuse Him 
of blasphemy. So they began picking up stones 
to stone Him. 

Jesus perceived their threatening action, and 
He asked calmly, "I have let you see many a good 
deed of God ; for which of them do you mean to 
stone me?" They replied it was not for His good 
works they would stone Him, but for blasphemy, 
that He made Himself out to be God. Then 
Jesus reasoned with them, "If I am not doing 
the deeds of my Father, do not believe me; but 
if I am, then believe the deeds, though you will 
not believe me — that you may learn and under- 
stand that the Father is in me and I am in the 
Father." And though they were enraged against 
Him, though the very stones for their angry at- 
tack were in their hands, yet they did not stone or 
even hold Him. "He escaped their hands." 5 It 
seemed as if some majesty of the Truth within 
Him prevented them. 

One day when He taught in the Temple, the 
Pharisees and Chief Priests sent their officers 

5 St. John x, 39. 



JESUS CONTINUES JOURNEY 161 

to arrest Him, but the officers after hearing His 
words returned without Him, explaining that 
they had never heard any man speak like this 
man. 6 

Jesus then went to pass the night in prayer and 
rest on the Mount of Olives, outside the city, 
where, though it was the winter season and chilly, 
He slept in His cloak as usual. In the morning, 
refreshed, He returned to the Temple to preach. 
While He was there the Scribes and Pharisees 
brought to Him a woman who had been "taken 
in adultery," that abominable violation of the 
purity of marriage. They reminded Jesus that 
the law of Moses required that she be stoned. 
But what do you say should be done? they asked, 
hoping to entrap Him. Jesus made no reply. 
He only stooped, as though He had not heard 
them, and wrote with His finger on the ground. 
Then they asked Him plainly, Shall she be 
stoned? "He raised himself and said to them, 
'Let the innocent among you throw the first stone 
at her.' " For the law was more severe to the 
women than to the men, and Jesus substituted 
justice and a higher law. Let him stone her 
whose innocence gave him the right to judge and 
punish her. But no one replied. They were all 
"convicted by their own conscience." So, one 
by one, they all went away, the older men first, 

6 John vii, 32-46. 



162 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

"till Jesus was left alone with the woman stand- 
ing before him." How her heart must have 
swelled with surprise and emotion, and adora- 
tion of Jesus, yes, and passionate penitence. 

Jesus asked her, "Has no one condemned 
you?" "No one, sir," she answered. Then Jesus 
said that He did not condemn her either. He 
told her to go, and "never sin again." 7 Instead 
of stones, she received pity and forgiveness, and 
hope for the future. 

After more healing and more instruction, Jesus 
then left Jerusalem, amid constant threats from 
the Pharisees, and went over the Jordan into 
Peraea, where only He was safe from the death 
for which He was not yet ready. 

It is probable that He would have preferred 
to go again to the little village of Bethany, near 
Jerusalem — only separated from it by a short 
walk over the Mount of Olives — where dwelt His 
friend Lazarus, with his sisters Mary and Mar- 
tha. As so great a miracle occurred in connec- 
tion with Lazarus, we shall see who these people 
were. They were, first of all, believers in Jesus, 
the Christ, the Messiah, and we are told by St. 
John that Jesus loved them. Jesus often stayed 
with them on His journeys to and fro between 
Galilee and Jerusalem, and it must have been 

7 John viii, 3-11. "It is uncertain to which, if any, of the 
canonical gospels this fragment of primitive tradition originally- 
belonged." — Moffatt. 






JESUS CONTINUES JOURNEY 163 

pleasant to Him to rest with this quiet congenial 
family after the weariness of His constant work 
and travel, and the continual fret of His conflicts 
with the Pharisees. 

Bethany was a pleasant, peaceful, tree-em- 
bowered village resting in a gracious hollow 
among the hills. The house where Lazarus lived 
is spoken of in the Gospels as Martha's house, 
or sometimes as the house of Simon the Leper, 
who, it is conj ectured, may have been her father 
or her deceased husband. Martha was a well- 
meaning, bustling woman, useful and interested 
in the affairs of her household. So one day, be- 
fore the time of which we are now speaking, 
Martha went busily about preparing for His re- 
freshment, but Mary her sister, letting her own 
household duties wait while Jesus was just come, 
left all and came and sat at His feet and listened 
to His words. 

When Martha saw that Mary had left her work 
and sat idle, eagerly drinking in what Jesus said, 
she was irritated. It seemed to her unjust that 
she should be left to do the work all alone. So 
she came to Jesus, perhaps flushed from her la- 
bors and a little out of temper, and said, "Lord, 
is it all one to you that my sister has left me to 
do all the work alone? Come, tell her to lend 
me a hand." 

But Jesus answered her, kindly, that Mary had 



164 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

chosen what was best, and it should not be taken 
away from her. He wanted Martha to realize 
that our material wants should come after our 
spiritual wants. He knew He should not be long 
with them, and that Mary had been wise — had 
shown the right inclination — to listen first to His 
words of life, — afterwards she could serve Him 
with bread, and not more than was necessary. It 
was a gentle rebuke to those of us who become 
too much "cumbered" with the service of the 
body, and neglect the higher need of the soul. 



CHAPTER XXII 

LAZARUS IS RAISED FROM THE DEAD 

But it was not to Mary and Martha's Bethany 
that Jesus now retired to evade for a while longer 
those in Jerusalem who sought to slay Him; it 
was to another Bethany, and other parts, of Per- 
sia, and here many came to Him, and many be- 
lieved. But among them came as usual the 
Pharisees, to question Him slyly, treacherously. 

Now while Jesus was in this region, He re- 
ceived word from His friends Mary and Martha, 
in their Bethany of Judaea, near Jerusalem, that 
their brother Lazarus was ill. Jesus loved Laza- 
rus, and his sisters sent the message, "Lord, he 
whom you love is ill," for they expected that 
Jesus would come to Bethany to heal him, even 
though by returning so near to Jerusalem He in- 
curred danger from the Jews. 

But Jesus did not go at once. He said, "This 
illness is not to end in death ; the end of it is the 
glory of God, that the Son of God may be glori- 
fied thereby." That is, this illness is not for the 
glory of death, but for the glory of God's power 

165 



166 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

over death. For He knew what was to come. 
So He allowed two days to pass. 

Then He said quietly to His disciples, "Let us 
go back to Judaea." The disciples were alarmed ; 
they asked how He could go again into Judaea 
where only a short time before the Jews had al- 
most stoned Him — how could He venture so soon 
again into such danger? But Jesus said, "Our 
friend Lazarus has fallen asleep ; I am going to 
waken him." The disciples, whose first thought 
was always the matter-of-fact and literal one, 
thought He referred to natural sleep, so they 
said, to influence Jesus not to go, If he is able to 
sleep, he will get well. Jesus then said plainly, 
"Lazarus is dead." And then, "Come now, let 
us go to him." 

One of the disciples, Thomas, called "the 
Twin," was of a very doubting and despondent 
nature. He loved the Lord, but he always saw 
the dark side of every event. So now he said to 
the others, "Let us go too, let us die along with 
him," for he was sure that when Jesus ventured 
into Judaea again He would be killed. 

So they started on their walk to Bethany of 
Judaea, supposed to have been a distance of about 
twenty miles, and when they reached the village 
they remained outside in the country, probably 
to prepare their entrance with caution because of 
the presence of many Jews from Jerusalem, who 



LAZARUS RAISED FROM DEAD 167 

had come to the funeral of Lazarus to comfort 
his bereaved family in the usual way — for the 
family was prominent and well-known. 

When Martha heard that Jesus was outside the 
village, she hurried forth secretly, to meet Him, 
and the more quiet Mary remained in the house, 
mourning for her brother. Martha told Jesus 
that Lazarus had died on the same day she had 
sent Him the news of his illness, and her brother 
had now lain four days in the tomb. It was not 
unnatural that she should be inclined to reproach 
her Lord, whose power, had it come in time, 
would have saved her beloved brother. "Had 
you been here, Lord, my brother would not have 
died. But now — well, I know whatever you ask 
God for, he will grant you." So, as Martha had 
perfect faith, Jesus said, "Thy brother will rise 
again." 

Martha misunderstood Him, and said, "I 
know he will rise at the resurrection, on the last 
day." But it was as if she would have added, 
"But oh, I need my brother here and now." 

Then Jesus spoke those words that have 
brought balm and comfort to so many grief- 
stricken hearts: "I am myself resurrection and 
life : he who believes in me will live, even if he dies, 
and no one who lives and believes in me will ever 
die. You believe that?" And Martha, who did 
not perfectly comprehend His meaning, but who 



168 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

had faith in Him, answered, "Yea, Lord: I do 
believe you are the Christ, the Son of God, who 
was to come into the world." 

Jesus must then have asked for Mary — who, 
perhaps, He knew could understand better this 
highly spiritual teaching — for Martha hurried 
back to the house, and calling Mary away from 
the comforters who were with her, she said, "The 
Teacher is here, and he is calling for you." And 
Mary went out quickly to Jesus, who remained 
outside the village. The Jews thought she was 
going to her brother's grave, so they followed her. 

When Mary came to Jesus her tears burst forth 
anew at sight of Him and the thought of her 
brother, and she fell down at his feet, "crying, 
'Had you been here, Lord, my brother would not 
have died.' " 

And Jesus was troubled when He saw Mary 
weeping, and also her friends who had come with 
her. 

"Where have you laid him?" He said. They 
answered, "Come and see, Sir." 

And then Jesus wept. Perhaps the powerful 
emotions of human compassion and sympathy, 
and the divine consciousness of His oneness with 
God, and the power over death which had been 
given Him by the Father, overcame Him. 

Then the Jews saw how much Jesus had loved 
the dead man — that was all they would be able to 



LAZARUS RAISED FROM DEAD 169 

see in His holy and complicated emotion — and 
some of them sneeringly asked among themselves 
why He had not healed Lazarus and prevented 
his death, if He loved him so much ; for, they said, 
this man has opened the eyes of the blind — a 
miracle which they had themselves witnessed — 
and why, therefore, could He not have saved His 
friend? 

Jesus, troubled and sighing, "went to the tomb. 
It was a cave, with a bowlder to close it." These 
tombs were built often in the low hillsides, their 
fronts carved, and with a slab or large stone to 
close the opening. 

Jesus told them to take away the stone. But 
now, when she saw that the grave was to be 
opened, Martha's practical mind remembered 
what might be the result. So she reminded Jesus 
that as Lazarus had been dead nearly four days, 
his body would be offensive. For in that warm 
country it was necessary to bury the dead with- 
out delay. But Jesus said, in patient rebuke, 
"Did I not tell you, if you will only believe, you 
shall see the glory of God?" Then He lifted 
His eyes to Heaven, and spoke, "Father, I thank 
thee for listening to me. I knew thou wouldst 
always listen to me, but I spoke on account of the 
crowd around, that they might believe thou hast 
sent me." 



170 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

When He had thus given glory and thanks to 
God, Jesus cried aloud "Lazarus, come out." 

What a moment of agonized suspense, of fear, 
of hope, for those who stood before the black 
opening of that tomb ! And then the silence was 
broken by a faint stir within it, and the man who 
was dead appeared, with the bandages of the 
grave wrapped round his hands and feet, and a 
towel around his head. 

The awed silence of the group standing before 
the tomb was broken by the authoritative voice of 
Jesus. 

"Untie him, and let him move." So they took 
the grave-clothes off of the living Lazarus. 

So is it always the voice of Jesus which 
breaks our grief -stricken silence as we stand be- 
fore the tombs of those we love — His voice say- 
ing, "I am myself resurrection and life: he who 
believes in me will live, even if he dies, and no 
one who lives and believes in me will ever die." * 

1 John xi, 1-45. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

JESUS IS TRIUMPHANT 

This stupendous miracle caused many of the 
Jews, who had come to Mary and Martha as com- 
forters, to believe that Jesus was truly the Mes- 
siah. But there were others who, even though 
they were forced to believe, were filled with dis- 
trust and hatred of this Man who performed the 
deeds of God. So they returned in haste to 
Jerusalem, and told the Pharisees what they had 
witnessed. 

The Pharisees and the High Priests then held 
a council. They were alarmed by this latest 
miracle which had been seen by so many, and 
which could not fail to bring all the people to be- 
lieve in Jesus. If the people followed Jesus, 
and made Him their king, as they would surely 
do, this would be treason against their conquering 
rulers, the Romans, who would come and destroy 
them. 

tThe High Priest was then a Jew named Caia- 
phas, a man of great authority. He said that 
there was but one course to follow — that Jesus 
must die. It was better, he said, that one man 
171 



172 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

should die, than that the whole nation should per- 
ish. (But as we know, the very opposite of this 
was true, and the nation was ruined after Jesus 
had been put to death.) 

The high court of the Jews — called the San- 
hedrin — consisted of seventy-one members, who 
were High Priests, elders of the people and Rab- 
bis. 

Now the Sanhedrin, under the law, had no 
right to carry out a sentence of death. They 
could pass the sentence, but they were not allowed 
to execute it: only the Roman authorities could 
do that. We shall see later how they managed to 
work their will. Meanwhile, they did not know 
where Jesus had gone, and they commanded that 
any man who knew where He was should imme- 
diately inform the Sanhedrin, that they might 
arrest Him. 

When Jesus was told of the threatening action 
of the Sanhedrin, He left Bethany of Judaea and 
went to Ephraim in Samaria, for His time was 
not come yet. Here He remained for several 
weeks, teaching His apostles and other disciples, 
and preparing for His final sacrifice. Of this, 
however, His followers had no realization. They 
only thought of Him as the triumphant Messiah, 
He who raised Lazarus from the dead and per- 
formed countless other miracles. They were 



JESUS IS TRIUMPHANT 173 

never more full of enthusiasm and earthly hope 
than they were at this time. 

It was now early spring, and the great Feast 
of the Passover was near at hand. From their re- 
treat at Ephraim they could see the long bands 
of pilgrims from Galilee and other places, joy- 
fully approaching Jerusalem for the feast which 
would last eight days and be for them full of ex- 
citement and religious happiness. But when Je- 
sus descended from the high ground of Ephraim 
to the road, to go to Jerusalem, He walked alone 
before His followers, in godlike meditation. He 
had been explaining the spiritual nature of the 
Realm of God, and His disciples were astounded 
by His words, for their thoughts were earthly. 
St. Mark tells us the disciples "were in dismay, 
and the company who followed were afraid." 1 
Later He called His apostles, and told them that 
they were now going to Jerusalem ; that there He 
would be taken by the Jews and delivered over 
to the Gentiles — the Romans — who would mock 
and scourge and spit upon Him, and finally cru- 
cify Him; but that on the third day He should 
rise again. But most of them did not fully real- 
ize the truth of His words. Their minds were 
still full of triumphant worldly ideas and hopes. 
Even at this solemn time the mother of the two 
apostles, James and John — she who constantly 

1 Mark x, 32. 



174 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

followed Jesus, with other faithful women be- 
lievers, "ministering to him of their substance" 
— came to Him with her two sons, asking that 
they should sit, one on His right hand, one on 
His left, in glory. Jesus answered, "You do 
not know what you are asking. Can you drink 
the cup I am going to drink?" Can you renounce 
as I renounce, humble yourselves as I humble 
myself? And it was evident that they could not 
else they would not have asked to sit in the high- 
est place. Jesus explained to them, "You shall 
drink my cup, but it is not for me to grant seats 
at my right hand and at my left ; these belong to 
the men for whom they have been destined by my 
Father." The other apostles were much dis- 
pleased with James and John for trying to secure 
for themselves the places of highest honor, — 
thereby proving themselves no more humble, per- 
haps, than James and John. So Jesus called 
them to Him, and explained that with the Gen- 
tiles the greatest were set up to rule over the 
others; but that with them it must be just the 
reverse. "Whoever wants to be great among 
you, must be your servant, and whoever wants to 
be first among you must be your slave; just as 
the Son of man has not come to be served but to 
serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." 2 

* Matt, xx, 20-28. 






JESUS IS TRIUMPHANT 175 

But this was the hardest lesson of all for them to 
learn, as it still is for us. 

They now approached the city of Jericho — a 
city which at that time was so beautiful with its 
innumerable palms and rose-gardens and date- 
groves that it was called the "Paradise of God," 
though now it is only a wretched Arab village; 
and as they came near they passed a poor blind 
man named Bartimasus, who was begging by the 
roadside. Hearing the sound of many people 
passing Bartimaaus asked who and what they 
were ? They told him that it was Jesus of Naza- 
reth passing by. 

The fame of Jesus' healing of the poor had evi- 
dently reached the helpless beggar, who had had 
small hope of ever coming near the great Pro- 
phet. But when they told him that Jesus, even 
Jesus, was passing near him, he cried out, "Son 
of David! Jesus! have pity on me." But the 
people rebuked him — a mere blind beggar. How 
should he be allowed to disturb the Messiah on 
His road to the Passover? But Bartimaaus, des- 
perate with the fear of missing this great chance 
to have his sight restored, a chance which cer- 
tainly would never come to him again, only cried 
louder, "Son of David, have pity on me!" 

When Jesus heard these impassioned cries, 
hoarse with excitement, He stopped and ordered 
them to bring Bartimaaus to Him, and when he 



176 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

had come, Jesus said, "What do you want me to 
do for you?" The blind man answered, "Rab- 
boni, I want to regain my sight." We can im- 
agine how, with that tremendous request, the 
poor man's voice trembled and broke. And 
Jesus said, "Go, your faith has made you well." 

Immediately the man saw, and he joined the 
caravan of pilgrims and followed Jesus, praising 
God, and all the people praised God too. 3 

They now entered the beautiful city of Jericho. 
The multitudes of people following Jesus were 
becoming more and more enthusiastic, more sure 
that the time of power and success was at hand, 
and there must have been loud and joyful sounds 
of singing and playing as they proceeded. 

We must pause here to note that much of this 
enthusiasm was mere emotional excitement, and 
the tribute of thoughtless minds to the apparent 
victoiy of Jesus ; for what did the people do later, 
when Jesus was taken prisoner? Where then 
were their loyalty and their defense of their 
King? 

Naturally the townspeople flocked out to meet 
and see them, and among them was a man named 
Zaccha^us who, because he was short of stature 
and could not see Jesus for the crowd, climbed 
up into a tree. This man was one of the many 
"publicans," or tax-collectors, who lived in Jer- 

3 Mark x, 46-52. 



JESUS IS TRIUMPHANT 177 

icho in order to collect the taxes on a certain kind 
of balsam which grew there; and he was much 
disliked by the Jews who, as we have already 
learned, hated tax-collectors ; and they especially 
hated this man because he was, like themselves, a 
Jew. Zaccheeus also was an unjust man, who 
was suspected of collecting more than was actu- 
ally due. Fancy then the surprise and even in- 
dignation of the people when they saw Jesus stop 
beside the tree where Zacchfeus had climbed, look 
up and say, "Zacchseus, come down at once, for 
I must stay at your house today." 

Stay at the house of Zacchseus, the dishonest 
tax-collector ! Why, Jericho was a priestly city, 
where many lived who were high in the service 
of the Temple. Should the Messiah, now ap- 
proaching the brilliance of success, now about to 
come into His earthly kingdom, as they thought, 
should He stay in the house of a man who was 
a tax-collector and a sinner? Thus thought the 
murmuring people. 

But Zacchseus, surprised and overjoyed at this 
mark of favor from a Leader of the people, a 
Man about whom they were gathering with such 
excitement, and realizing at last, in a flash of 
spiritual light, that this Man performed miracles, 
was in fact divine, the Messiah, — touched to the 
heart's core by the cordial kindness of His voice, 
and the sudden consciousness that he, Zacchseus, 



178 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

disliked and distrusted, and perhaps deserving it, 
was being raised to high honor by his Lord, was 
being trusted and even loved, — all this swift and 
strong emotion worked in Zacchseus the cure of 
penitence, the cure of his sin, and he said, "I will 
give the half of all I have, Lord, to the poor, and 
if I have cheated anybody I will give him back 
four times as much." Then Jesus told Zacchasus 
that he was saved from his sin, saying, "For the 
Son of man has come to seek and save the lost." 4 

* Luke xix, 1-28. 






CHAPTER XXIV 

JESUS ENTERS JERUSALEM 

After a brief stay at Jericho, the pilgrims set 
forth again for Jerusalem. The road now led 
up a difficult ascent and through a barren and 
rocky region. For fifteen miles they would have 
to toil upward. Jesus as before went alone in 
advance, while the people's glances dwelt upon 
Him with awe and wonder. 

A long and wearisome march brought them to 
the little town of Bethany of Judaea — which was 
only separated from Jerusalem by a short walk 
over the Mount of Olives, or the "Olive-Or- 
chard." Here at Bethany Jesus stopped, and 
went to stay in the home of His friends, Lazarus 
and Mary and Martha. It is interesting to 
know that historians can state the very probable 
date of His arrival here, Friday, March 31, a.d. 
30. 1 

The caravan of pilgrims now parted from their 
Leader, and went onward to the Passover at 
Jerusalem, singing as they entered the city the 
118th Psalm, which begins, "O give thanks unto 

1 Farrar's "Life of Christ," p. 525. 
179 



180 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

the Lord; for he is good: because his mercy en- 
dureth forever," according to their habit. 
Some of them stayed in the city itself — those who 
had friends there, or who had sufficient means to 
pay for lodgings, if indeed they could find any 
in the overcrowded place — and others camped 
outside the city gates, in the temporary shelters 
which to this day they erect on similar occasions. 
This was now six days before the great Feast of 
the Passover. 

On the day following Jesus' arrival in Beth- 
any — the day which, as it came before the Pass- 
over, the Jews called the "great Sabbath" — a 
supper was made for Him in the home of Laz- 
arus, Martha and Mary. An incident occurred 
at this feast which seemed to mark the first defi- 
nite movement of the tragedy which now began 
to be unfolded. 

While Jesus sat at this supper with His 
friends, His own disciples and probably other 
guests, Mary, the quiet and deep-souled sister of 
Lazarus, perhaps vividly affected by her emo- 
tions of love and gratitude in the presence of the 
Savior of her brother and of all, brought a rich 
and costly gift that she might offer it to Him. 
It was a vase made of alabaster, and filled with a 
precious perfume known as Indian spikenard. 
She broke the vase, and gently poured the per- 
fume over His head and His feet, and then, in 



JESUS ENTERS JERUSALEM 181 

her humility and adoration, she knelt as Mary 
Magdalene had done in the house of Simon the 
Pharisee "while the atmosphere of the whole 
house was filled with the delicious fragrance." 

But one of the disciples was especially dis- 
pleased with Mary's loving act, which he deemed 
wasteful and extravagant. Why was not this 
spikenard sold, instead, and the money given to 
the poor? But it was not only of the poor he 
thought. It was the avarice, and the morbid 
jealousy and the restless sinfulness of Judas 
Iscariot which caused his strong protest. The 
other disciples, too, "murmured against" Mary. 
"But Jesus said, 'Let her alone ; why are you an- 
noying her? She has done a beautiful thing to 
me. The poor you always have beside you, and 
you can be kind to them whenever you want ; but 
you will not always have me. She has done all 
she could — she has anticipated the perfuming of 
my body for burial.' " 2 Then He said that this 
deed of hers should be an eternal memorial to her 
name, wherever the Gospel should be preached. 
And this is indeed so. 

Now Judas Iscariot (which means Judas of 
Kerioth, the town of Judaea whence he came) was 
in a deadly rage at this act of Mary's, and Jesus' 
defense of her ; and it is evident that such a rage 
must have been growing for some time in that 

1 Mark xiv, 6-8. 



182 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

dark heart of his. Perhaps, too, Jesus' frequent 
allusions to His coming death had deprived Ju- 
das finally of all hope of the material prosperity 
which his covetous soul had desired and expected 
as the reward for following Jesus. He must by 
this hour have lost all love for His Master, if 
indeed he could ever have had any real love in 
his soul ; and he left the house, and flung himself 
out, raging and desperate, on the road to Jeru- 
salem, with his mind full of a fatal decision. 

What a journey that was, made in bitter silence 
and base desire for vengeance! It is the most 
repulsive example the world has ever known of 
the egotism of sin. And yet, must we not re- 
member Jesus' own words on every occasion — 
even when He hung dying in agony on the cross 
— must we not have pity even for a Judas? 

When this wretched man — for none is so 
wretched as the being lost in his own sin — reached 
Jerusalem, he sought out the Sanhedrin, that 
high court of the Priests and elders and Rabbis, 
which held its assemblies in a building probably 
near the eastern gate of the Temple, and which 
had set a price on the life of Jesus; and told 
them that Jesus would soon arrive at Jerusalem, 
that he would point Him out to them, and they 
could then arrest Him and do what they would. 
It is supposed that at this first interview no sum 
was mentioned as the payment to Judas for his 



JESUS ENTERS JERUSALEM 183 

betrayal, but the next time he went to the San- 
hedrin the sum he should receive was set at thirty- 
pieces of silver, which would be about nineteen or 
twenty dollars, or about four pounds. 

Now many Jews had come to the house of 
Lazarus where Jesus was taking His meal, in 
order not only to see One who had raised Lazarus 
from the dead, but to see Lazarus himself, about 
whom they would naturally feel much curiosity. 
These people learned that Jesus intended going 
the next day, Sunday, to Jerusalem. (It must 
always be remembered that Saturday is the Sab- 
bath of the Jews. ) There had been much specu- 
lation as to whether He would attend the Pass- 
over or not, whether He would dare come to 
Jerusalem where His life was in danger. So 
these visiting Jews at Bethany carried home the 
news to Jerusalem that Jesus was coming, and 
among the Galilean and other pilgrims, and the 
inhabitants of Jerusalem also, there was keen in- 
terest and expectation as to what might happen 
in consequence. The faithful then gathered 
together to welcome Him, and the excitement 
hourly grew greater. 

Meanwhile Jesus set forth on foot on the road 
to Jerusalem, over the Mount of Olives, followed 
by His apostles and many other disciples. When 
they reached the little village of Bethphage, 
which is very near to Jerusalem, Jesus command- 



184 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

ed two of His disciples to enter the village, say- 
ing that there they would find, tethered, the colt 
of an ass "whereon never man sat," — according 
to St. Matthew the colt's mother was to be 
brought also — that they should loose this colt and 
bring it to Him, and that if anyone should ques- 
tion them they were simply to say that the Lord 
had need of it, and then no one would hinder 
them. So the disciples looked through the vil- 
lage streets, and surely enough, outside a house 
which stood at two crossing streets, they found 
the colt, and were about to lead it away when 
some people who saw them asked what they were 
doing? They answered as Jesus had told them, 
that the Lord had need of it. It was enough. 
~No one raised any objection, and they led the 
colt to Jesus. Then certain of the disciples took 
off their cloaks, and laid them on the colt's back, 
and Jesus mounted. Thus the procession start- 
ed for Jerusalem, while the people threw their 
cloaks on the ground to make a carpet for the 
Messiah to pass over, and others cut great 
branches from the palm and other trees, and laid 
them reverently before Him. And the people 
sang, and cried, "Hosanna! Blessed be he who 
comes in the Lord's name, the King of Israel!" 
which were portions from the Psalms of David. 
The people rejoiced, and all promises seemed on 
the point of being fulfilled, for had not the 



JESUS ENTERS JERUSALEM 185 

prophet Zechariah said (ix. 9), "Rejoice greatly, 
O daughter of Zion ; shout, O daughter of Jeru- 
salem: behold thy King cometh unto thee: he is 
just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding 
upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass." 
And the people also said to each other, This is he 
who raised Lazarus from the dead, which we our- 
selves saw, therefore we know. 3 And because 
they had heard of the miracle, many people 
came out from Jerusalem to meet Him. But 
among them were some Pharisees, scornful and 
skeptical. 

And now an impressive incident occurred. As 
the procession turned abruptly around a bend of 
the road leading over the Mount of Olives, the 
view of Jerusalem burst suddenly upon their 
sight. It was a magnificent scene. Jerusalem 
was then, according to the Roman historian 
Tacitus, one of the wonders of the world. Above 
the many stone towers and the powerful fortifica- 
tions of the city, the snowy mass of the great 
Temple on Mount Moriah arose, dazzling the 
eyes with its whiteness and the Oriental splen- 
dor of its golden roof. And at this brilliant 
sight, what did Jesus do? He wept. He knew 
the city's coldness, its obstinacy, its great refusal 
of His love, and its consequent fate, one of the 
most shocking that ever befell a city of this world. 

*John xii, 17. 



186 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

"If thou hadst known!" He said. If thou hadst 
known the Truth, which would have saved thee. 
And He foretold its fall. 

In less than fifty years from that time the 
Roman emperor Titus had fulfilled this prophecy, 
and the siege of Jerusalem had become one of the 
most terrible events of history — a siege in which 
hundreds of the inhabitants were crucified, thou- 
sands killed in various horrible ways, other thou- 
sands sold as slaves, the apparently impregnable 
walls and towers thrown down, and the mighty 
and glorious Temple utterly destroyed. No 
wonder indeed that Jesus wept over the forth- 
coming fall of this city of strength and beauty, 
but of obstinate and hard-hearted and implacable 
pride. 

There is a curious record that, when all was 
still secure and peaceful in Jerusalem four years 
before the outbreak of this fateful war, a maniac 
went about the streets crying out, "A voice from 
the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the 
four winds, a voice against Jerusalem and the 
holy house, a voice against the bridegrooms and 
the brides, and a voice against the whole people." 
The authorities took him and by torture tried to 
make him give reasons for these menacing words, 
but he would say nothing but, "Woe! woe! to 
Jerusalem; woe to the city; woe to the people; 
woe to the holy house." During the siege of 



JESUS ENTERS JERUSALEM 187 

Jerusalem this poor creature, endowed in his 
mental ruin with a gift of prophecy, was killed 
by a stone from a catapult, one of the powerful 
machines with which they battered, down the 
great walls of those times. And, in these days, 
such stones as still remain of the mighty Jerusa- 
lem of Jesus' time, are sunk to a depth of many 
feet in the engulfing earth. 

After this solemn pause at the sight of the 
holy city, Jesus went forward, and the multitude 
grew more dense as He approached and entered 
its gates. All this popular enthusiasm of a great 
crowd, with their Messiah riding peacefully in 
the midst, aroused answering excitement in the 
city, and also suspicion and, as usual, contempt. 
But they advanced amid this hostile atmosphere 
until they reached the hill of the Temple, and 
here they separated and went to cleanse them- 
selves. 

Jesus then once more entered the Temple. 
Once more He found it defiled and transformed 
into a house of traffic and materialism, and once 
more He cleansed it. He "proceeded to drive 
out those who were buying and selling. 'It is 
written,' he told them, 'my house shall be a house 
of prayer, but you have made it a den of rob- 
bers.' " 4 Three years before He had driven them 
out just as He did now, and warned and in- 

4 Luke xix, 45-46. 



188 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

structed them, but to no avail. To bargain and 
sell, to reap profits, to increase their earthly 
comfort and prosperity were more to them than 
respect for the Temple of God, or the words of 
Jesus. 

After Jesus had put out all those who defiled 
the Temple, He began to teach the people, and 
to heal many blind and lame. 

But what were the High Priests and Scribes 
doing all this time ? Here was Jesus, the Prophet 
of the despised Nazareth, come into Jerusalem 
itself, taking upon Himself again to drive buy- 
ers and sellers out of the Temple. By what au- 
thority did He dare to perform such acts of 
power ? So they came to Him in the Temple, and 
asked Him by what right He acted?' 

Then Jesus said He would first ask them a 
question, Was the baptism of John from Heaven, 
or of men? That is, was John's authority for 
baptizing the people from God, or from men? 
And they were afraid to answer Him, because 
they reasoned, "If we say, 'From heaven,' he will 
ask, 'Why did you not believe him?' And if we 
say, 'From men,' the whole of the people will 
stone us: for they are convinced John was a 
prophet.' " So they weakly replied that they 
could not tell whence came John's authority. 
Then Jesus said to them, "No more will I tell 
you what authority I have for acting as I do." 



JESUS ENTERS JERUSALEM 189 

Thus He once more silenced their petty and dis- 
honest quibbling. 5 

But hearing the voices of the boys ^ in the 
courts of the Temple — children employed per- 
haps in the musical services — who in their inno- 
cent trust believed in Jesus, and cried out, "Ho- 
sanna to the Son of David" — the High Priests 
and Scribes called Jesus' attention to this, prob- 
ably to rebuke Him for bringing the children to 
have faith in Him, an impostor. "And Jesus 
saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, 'Out 
of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast 
perfected praise?' " 6 So they could make no ef- 
fective answer to Him, and were all the more 
angry. After this Jesus spoke these merciful 
words : "I have come as light into the world, that 
no one who believes in me may remain in the dark. 
If anyone hears my words and does not keep 
them, it is not I who judge him; for I have not 
come to judge the world but to save the world." 7 

Jesus then left them, and retired again to 
Bethany near by, to pass the night. 

6 Luke xx, 1-8. 
•Ps. viii, 2. 

7 John xii, 46-47. 



CHAPTER XXV 

JESUS SILENCES THE SADDUCEES 

All this time the conspiracy against Jesus was 
growing more and more menacing. It was 
announced that anyone who should dare to pro- 
claim his belief that Jesus was the Messiah would 
be excluded for thirty days — and perhaps longer 
— from the synagogue. This excommunication 
was called the cherem, and no Jew would will- 
ingly subject himself to its disgrace. So that, 
even though St. John tells us there were some of 
the rulers of the people who were inclined to have 
a kind of faith in Jesus, and who perhaps par- 
tially, at least, understood Him, they feared to 
express an opinion which would expose them to 
the contempt or hatred of their contemporaries. 
In fact, Jesus was in constant personal danger 
each time He entered Jerusalem, but it was His 
intention to go there daily. 

One day, after a night's repose in Bethany, 
Jesus set forth with His disciples over the Mount 
of Olives. It must have been that they had not 
yet eaten, for on the way Jesus was hungry, and 
seeing a fig tree by the wayside, He approached 

190 



JESUS SILENCES SADDUCEES 191 

to pick its fruit. But the tree bore nothing but 
leaves : it was barren. When the Lord had need 
of its fruit, it had none to show. In order to 
teach His disciples the lesson of fruitfulness, of 
bringing forth good deeds as an evidence of 
the sincerity and worth of our faith, Jesus said, 
" 'May no fruit ever come from you after this!' 
And instantly the fig tree withered up." * So 
they were taught that a faith which has 
only words, is like the fig tree that had only 
leaves. But when the disciples were surprised 
at this miracle of the withered tree, Jesus told 
them that pure faith, faith without any alloy of 
doubt, could do deeds more wonderful than this. 
"Have faith in God," He said to them; but 
warned them not to pray with an unforgiving 
heart. 2 

They went as usual to the Temple, and here 
the people gathered around Jesus and listened to 
His parables, some believing, some doubting, but 
all deeming Him a Prophet, and held spell-bound 
by His divine eloquence. So the High Priests, 
Scribes and Pharisees burned with rage against 
Him whom they had not been able to humiliate 
or confuse before the people, and they formed a 
new plot. They sent to Him a company of 
Pharisees and Herodians, as we know the fol- 

1 Matt, xxi, 18-19. 
3 Mark xi, 22-26. 



192 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

lowers of Herod were called. These two parties 
were generally bitterly opposed to each other, 
but so great was the desire of all to destroy 
Jesus, that even these enemies united against 
Him. To the Temple they came, therefore, 
craftily plotting and planning, and decided upon 
the following ruse: to ask Jesus if it was right 
to pay tribute to Cassar, who was the Roman 
emperor Tiberius. 

It must be understood that the Jews always 
objected to paying taxes, or tribute, to their 
Roman conquerors, though they were compelled 
to do so. Their reason for this objection can be 
traced far back in their history. They had al- 
ways believed that each man held his land as a 
fief — a sort of loan — from Jehovah Himself, and 
though he had always paid his taxes to the actual 
owner of the land, this owner gave the taxes to 
the Levites, or inferior priests, to be used in the 
service of Jehovah's Temple. So the Jews 
thought that if they paid taxes to the Roman em- 
peror, it was acknowledging a king other than 
Jehovah. In their minds, therefore, it was a 
kind of sin, and yet the Romans obliged them to 
do this. So it was a very dangerous ques- 
tion these hypocrites now put to Jesus before the 
people. They addressed Him in these flattering 
and deceitful words: 



JESUS SILENCES SADDUCEES 193 

"Teacher, we know you are sincere and fear- 
less; you do not court human favor, you teach 
the Way of God honestly. Is it right to pay 
taxes to Csesar or not? Are we to pay, or are 
we not to pay?" 

Jesus of course knew their hypocrisy, and that 
they had come to entrap Him if possible, pre- 
tending to be candidly seeking for information. 
So He said, "Why tempt me?" It was as if He 
had said, you foolish men, why do you give your- 
selves the trouble to hide your true motives from 
me? Do you not know that your hearts are as 
open books before me? Instead of answering 
them directly, therefore, He said, "Bring me a 
penny, that I may see it." And they brought 
the penny not knowing at all how He would an- 
swer them, and probably thinking that this time 
surely they had snared Him, and He would be 
put in the wrong before the people; for if He 
counseled them to pay tribute to Caesar it was a 
violation of their religious law, and if He coun- 
seled them not to pay, it would bring down upon 
His head the wrath of the Roman authorities. 

Jesus took the penny in His hand, the little 
coin known as a denarius. On one side of it 
was stamped the face of the Roman emperor 
Tiberius, on the other his title, Pontifex Maxi- 
mus. 



194 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

Jesus asked them, "Whose likeness, whose in- 
scription is this?" They could only reply that it 
was Caesar's. And Jesus said, "Give Caesar 
what belongs to Caesar, give God what belongs to 
God." 3 That is, do your duty in the world you 
are sent to live in, abide by the law, but do not 
forget to pay unto God the dues of reverence, of 
adoration, of love and obedience which belong to 
Him. For if men do not forget that, will they 
not also be good citizens of the State? If men 
obeyed God perfectly would they not be good 
citizens of a good State? for a man's neighbor 
would then be loved as himself, and the evils re- 
sulting from greed and selfishness would dis- 
appear. 

When Jesus made this immortal reply — a 
whole sermon teaching the people their civil and 
religious duty — they were astonished. Again 
their subtleties were frustrated by the few and 
simple words of Truth. 

After this another interesting question was put 
to the Master, and this time by a party of Saddu- 
cees. The Sadducees were of the nobility, "the 
Temple nobility," and held the office of Chief 
Priest generation after generation. But they 
did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. 
There was a certain fineness in their idea that 
God should be served without hope of reward; 

3 Mark xii, 13-17. 



JESUS SILENCES SADDUCEES 195 

but unfortunately, as they knew little of the 
beauty of mercy to others, as they were judges 
who condemned others without clemency accord- 
ing to the strict, often unjust, letter of the law, 
they did not, for this and other reasons, always 
serve God, in any sense. As to the resurrection, 
they were inclined to hold the idea up to ridi- 
cule, because their conception of "eternal life" 
was altogether an earthly one. Their minds 
could not rise above the material facts of every- 
day life — in which respect they were like a lum- 
bering beetle wandering in a beautiful garden, 
who does not believe in the existence of sights and 
sounds which his own eyes and ears are incapable 
of seeing and hearing. So these Sadducees, dig- 
nified and proudly egotistical men, accustomed 
to that homage and respect from their fellow 
beings which has so unbalancing an effect upon 
most men's minds, came to Jesus and related to 
Him the rather absurd case of a woman who had 
been married to seven successive husbands, all of 
whom had died. Finally, the woman died too. 
Then they asked, "At the resurrection, when they 
rise, whose wife will she be?" 

Jesus then said an astonishing thing to them 
— they, the Sadducees, whose knowledge of the 
Scriptures was perfect. He said, "Is this not 
where you go wrong? — You understand neither 
the Scriptures nor the power of God. When 



196 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

people rise from the dead they neither marry nor 
are married, they are like the angels in heaven." 

These words have saddened some people whose 
marriage has been happy and blessed. But why 
should it do so? Jesus never said that those 
whose souls are akin should be separated after 
death. And He only referred here to our earthly 
institution of marriage, an institution neces- 
sary in its appropriate time and place, and the 
foundation of true and orderly living here, but 
which if neither needed nor desired after death 
would not be missed, — any more than some of our 
customs during early childhood are needed, de- 
sired or missed after we have grown up. For 
the joys of maturity take the place of the joys of 
childhood, and each is sufficient in its turn. 

As to the resurrection, Jesus continued to refer 
his questioners to the ancient Scriptures, in which 
they were so learned, and asked if they did not 
remember how, when God spoke to Moses out 
of the burning bush, He said, "I am the God of 
Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of 
Jacob." Now Abraham and Isaac and Jacob 
were then dead, and would God call Himself a 
God of dead men? Jesus said, "He is not the 
God of dead people but of living. You are far 
wrong." Once more the Sadducees could not 
answer Him. 

During this conversation a Scribe was stand- 



JESUS SILENCES SADDUCEES 197 

ing by who had been impressed by the reasoning 
of Jesus. So he asked Him, "What is the chief 
of all the commands?" A very important ques- 
tion. 

Jesus answered, "The chief one is: Hear, O 
Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and you 
must love the Lord your God with your whole 
heart, with your whole soul, with your whole 
mind, and with your whole strength. The sec- 
ond is this: You must love your neighbor as 
yourself. There is no other command greater 
than these." 

The Scribe answered, "Right, Teacher! You 
have truly said, He is One, and there is none else 
but Him. Also, to love him with the whole 
heart, with the whole understanding, and with the 
whole strength, and to love one's neighbor as one- 
self — that is far more than all holocausts and 
sacrifices." 

Jesus looked upon the man with approval for 
this reply, and said, "You are not far off the 
Realm of God." After that no one dared ask 
Him any more questions. 4 This was in fact the 
last time Jesus was questioned, until He stood 
His so-called trials. 

' Mark xii, 18-34. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

JESUS INSTITUTES THE LORD'S SUPPEB 

Jesus continued teaching the people in the 
Temple, and among them must have been many 
of the vast multitude who had come to the Feast 
of the Passover. Some of the Temple Courts 
were so spacious that at least six thousand peo- 
ple could enter at one time, and this gives some 
idea of the size of the congregations who listened 
to Jesus. He now warned them against the 
hypocritical Scribes and Pharisees whose ques- 
tions they had heard, counseling them to follow 
the words of those men but not their deeds. 
They talked, but did not act, well. He accused 
them of cruelty to others, and of vanity because 
they only did good works in order that men 
should see them and praise them, and because 
they liked to have the best and most honorable 
seats at feasts and in church. "Woe to you," He 
said, "You impious Scribes and Pharisees ! You 
shut the Realm of heaven in men's faces; you 
neither enter yourselves" nor let others enter. 
You are not good yourselves, and by your wicked 
example you prevent others from being good. 

198 



INSTITUTES LORD'S SUPPER 199 

He called them "blind guides," and "senseless 
and blind." It is a magnificent denunciation of 
hypocrisy, and represents one of the few occa- 
sions when Jesus taught in the righteous spirit of 
a powerful indignation. 

But even then, His heart ached over His peo- 
ple who turned away from the love and mercy 
He offered them, and His voice broke upon those 
pathetic words, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! slay- 
ing the prophets, and stoning those who have 
been sent to you ! How often I would fain have 
gathered your children as a fowl gathers her 
brood under her wings ! But you would not have 
it! See, Your House is left to you, desolate." 
For He, their rejected Savior, should soon be 
taken away, and with Him should depart for a 
season the mercy of God. 1 

As they were about to leave the Temple that 
day, the disciples pointed out the huge stones of 
the building, and the formidable strength of it 
all. How surprised they were when Jesus re- 
plied, "You see all this? I tell you truly, not a 
stone here will be left upon another, without be- 
ing torn down." Only too well, as we have seen, 
was this prophecy fulfilled. The Jewish his- 
torian Josephus relates that in the terrible siege 
of Jerusalem, less than a half century later, not 
only was the city laid in ruins, but 1,100,000 

J Matt. xxiii. 



200 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

men were killed, and 97,000 taken captive as 
slaves. The scenes of that siege, as described 
by Josephus, are more than horrible. 

As Jesus and the disciples paused while in the 
Court of the Women, another incident occurred 
of quite a different kind. In this Court were 
thirteen chests, placed there to receive the peo- 
ple's contributions to the Temple. As Jesus 
watched them dropping in their alms, the rich 
who gave gold and silver, and the poor who gave 
what they could, there passed along a poor 
widow. Hers was probably the smallest contri- 
bution of all, for she gave two mites, which are 
of the value of two thirds of a farthing, and a far- 
thing would be about an eighth of a cent. Yet, 
as this was all that she had to give, Jesus at once 
called the attention of His disciples to her act of 
true charity. He said, "I tell you plainly, this 
poor widow has put in more than them all; for 
these people all contributed out of their surplus, 
but she has given out of her neediness all her liv- 
ing." 2 

Farrar quotes this good saying from St. Am- 
brose: "One coin out of a little is better than a 
treasure out of much; for it is not considered 
how much is given, but how much remains be- 
hind." 

Thus with this last lesson emphasizing the 

2 Luke xxi, 1-4. 



INSTITUTES LORD'S SUPPER, 201 

value of self-sacrifice, Jesus left the Temple for- 
ever. 

It was Tuesday as they now passed out of the 
gate of Jerusalem, and made their way toward 
Bethany over the Mount of Olives. But as they 
sat there resting, Jesus preached to them that ser- 
mon in which He spoke of the end of the world, 
and of His second coming in great glory. 3 After 
this, they resumed the walk to Bethany, and 
here in the quiet and calm of this small village 
Jesus passed the following day in meditation and 
teaching, and preparation for the tragic fate 
which was now drawing so near. It was indeed 
but two days distant; but the disciples were still 
unaware of it. 

When Thursday came — which in the Middle 
Ages used to be called Green Thursday — Jesus 
sent Peter, and John whom He so loved, into 
Jerusalem to prepare for them all the solemn 
Feast of the Passover. And when they asked 
Him to tell them where to go, He said that as they 
would enter the city they would meet a man 
carrying a jar of water, and that they should fol- 
low him, and when he arrived at a house they 
should enter after him. Then they should say 
to the owner of the house, the "goodman," "The 
Teacher asks you, Where is the room in which 
I can eat the Passover with my disciples ? Then 

3 Mark xiii, 3-37. 



202 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

he will show you a large room upstairs with 
couches spread; make your preparations there." 

All these events befell as Jesus said, and in 
this goodman's house they prepared the Passover 
for Him. And it was at this last feast that 
Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper, or Holy 
Communion, the Blessed Sacrament. 

The Passover feast then was celebrated in this 
upper chamber, furnished with the necessary 
tables and couches, and here Jesus came and with 
His twelve apostles reclined at the table; for it 
was the custom of those days not to sit upright 
at table, as we do, but to recline on couches sup- 
plied with cushions, resting usually on the left 
elbow and leaving the right arm free. At Jesus' 
side was John whom He loved. If we may 
judge from the Gospels themselves, that written 
by John shows him to have been the most spir- 
itual of them all, and possibly it was this quality 
which, humanly speaking, so endeared Him to 
His Lord. 

At this supper, among the loyal apostles, sat 
the black -browed Judas, who had bargained to 
betray Jesus to the Jews. We do not know 
what caused the childish dispute among them 
as to who was the greatest, but probably for this 
reason Jesus taught them a lesson in humility 
which must have caused them to redden with 
shame. He arose, and taking water in a basin, 



INSTITUTES LORD'S SUPPER 203 

laying aside His garments, and wrapping a towel 
about Him, He stooped and washed the feet of 
all the disciples, and wiped them upon the towel 
which He had wrapped about Him, just as the 
humblest slave would perform that lowly service. 
Peter indeed protested, and with vigor, against 
this voluntary humiliation of his Master, but 
Jesus said, "You do not understand just now 
what I am doing, but you will understand it later 
on. . . . Unless I wash you, you will not share 
my lot." Then He put on His robe and re- 
turned to His central place at the table, and 
said, "Do you know what I have been doing to 
you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you 
are right: that is what I am. Well, if I have 
washed your feet, I who am your Lord and 
Teacher, you are bound to wash one another's 
feet; for I have been setting you an example, 
that you should do what I have done to you." 4 
That is, if I lay aside all thought of myself, and 
stoop and serve you, surely ye should serve one 
another. 

And now, during the ceremony of this last 
feast, Jesus gave thanks for the bread, and broke 
and gave it to them, "Saying, This means my 
body given up for your sake ; do this in memory 
of me. So too he gave them the cup after sup- 

4 John xiii, 4-15. 



204 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

per, saying, This cup means the new covenant 
ratified by my blood shed for your sake." 5 

And since that time the Holy Communion, the 
eating of the symbolic bread and drinking of 
the symbolic wine together in remembrance of 
Jesus' sacrifice of Himself for us, has been the 
holiest ceremony, in one form or another, of the 
Christian Church. 

We do not know if the traitor Judas shared 
in this loving communion or not: he may have 
already departed. But we know that before he 
went forth Jesus became troubled, and said to 
them, "Truly, truly I tell you, one of you will 
betray me." Then all the disciples were trou- 
bled in their turn, not knowing "which of them 
he meant." 

Peter spoke to John, who was close beside 
Jesus — for "he was the favorite of Jesus" — to 
ask Him who was the traitor. Jesus said, "The 
man I am going to give this piece of bread to, 
when I dip it in the dish." 

This giving of bread would not seem strange, 
as it was customary among those who were at 
table together. So Jesus dipped the bread in 
the dish, and gave it to Judas Iscariot. And 
Judas, whose evil conscience betrayed him, im- 
mediately rose and went away. "And it was 
night." 

B Luke xxii, 19-30. 



IXSTITUTES LORD'S SUPPER 205 

Jesus knew that he had gone directly to the 
High Priests to betray Him, and that His hour 
was come. And He spoke to them all with the 
tenderness of the parting He knew was near, 
calling them "dear children." "I give you a 
new command," He said, "to love one another — 
as I have loved you, you are to love one another. 
By this everyone will recognize that you are my 
disciples, if you have love one for another." 6 
The 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th chapters of St. 
John are full of all the beautiful things He now 
said to them, promising that He would not leave 
them "forlorn." "I will ask the Father to give 
you another Helper to be with you for ever, even 
the Spirit of Truth," which is the Holy Ghost. 

It seems almost incredible that even now they 
did not fully realize His coming death. Peter 
asked, "Lord, where are you going?" And Jesus 
said He was to go where Peter could not now 
follow, though he should follow later. Then 
Peter said, "Lord, why cannot I follow you just 
now? I will lay down my life for you." As in 
reality, though much later, he did. 

Then Jesus must have smiled upon him with 
divine pity, as He said, "Lay down your life for 
me? Truly, truly, I tell you before the cock 
crows you will have disowned me thrice over." 7 

• John xiii, 33-35. 
7 John xiii, 36-38. 



206 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

For He knew the weakness of the human spirit, 
even when it feels itself most strong. 

At the end of the supper according to custom 
they sang a Psalm, which it is supposed was the 
"Great Hallel." This was Psalm cxxxvi, usually 
sung after the Passover, and beginning, "O give 
thanks unto the Lord"; and then they set out to 
pass the night in the Garden of Gethsemane 
which lay a short distance from the city walls. 



CHAPTER XXVII 

JESUS IS BETRAYED 

The garden, or orchard, of Gethsemane was a 
quiet spot where Jesus went often to meditate 
and pray. Gethsemane means "oil-press," and 
it was so called because the owner had there set 
up a press with which he extracted the oil from 
his olives. The garden was full of olive and 
other trees, and low bushes, and here Jesus 
came with the disciples who were now at last 
solemn with premonitions of serious trouble. 

Jesus went apart from the rest, taking with 
Him Peter and John and James; and telling 
them to watch and wait for Him, He went fur- 
ther away to pray alone. As He prayed the 
time of great anguish came upon Him. He 
struggled with pain which we, being only human, 
cannot imagine at all. The knowledge of 
His approaching death was nothing compared to 
the divine suffering to which His soul now had to 
submit, His final endurance of the terrible and 
crushing burden of the sins of the world. We 
know, as Farrar reminds us, that thousands of 
men and women — Christian martyrs and others, 

207 



208 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

even sinful people — have submitted to mere 
death without a murmur; so we know that the 
thought of death was nothing to our Lord Jesus 
Christ. But what caused His agony in the Gar- 
den of Gethsemane, such agony that His sweat 
was "dropping to the ground like clots of 
blood," * was a sorrow and a struggle whose 
depth we, in our human limitations, cannot con- 
ceive. It was so extreme that He prayed, "Fa- 
ther, if it please thee, take this cup away from 
me. But thy will, not mine, be done," — words 
which have inspired many a grieved and shrink- 
ing human soul to resign itself nobly to the will 
of God. 

When Jesus came back to the three disciples 
He found them asleep, and He said, in gentle re- 
proach to Peter, "Are you sleeping, Simon? 
Could you not watch for a single hour? Watch 
and pray, all of you, so that you may not slip 
into temptation. The spirit is eager, but the 
flesh is weak." 2 

Then He went back again, and His intense 
prayer and His agony were renewed; but again 
when He returned He found them sleeping, for 
they were overcome by weariness. 

Then Jesus said, "Come, get up, here is my 
betrayer close at hand." 

1 Luke xxii, 44. 

2 Mark xiv, 36-38. 



JESUS IS BETRAYED 209 

And they saw a crowd of men approaching — 
Roman soldiers, and servants of the Temple, 
armed with sticks, some carrying lanterns, and at 
the head of them was Judas Iscariot. 

Jesus advanced immediately to meet them, 
asking whom they were looking for. Various 
voices replied excitedly, "Jesus the Nazarene." 

Jesus, standing there in His divine majesty, 
said only, "I am he." 

Whether it was the tone of His voice, which 
had often before awed and overcome His enemies, 
or whether the power of His divinity suddenly 
flashed over their souls, like dazzling light, we do 
not know; but those who had so threateningly 
advanced upon Him, at the sound of those words, 
"I am he," suddenly recoiled "and dropped to the 
ground." 3 

So He asked them again, as if to break the 
spell that had fallen upon them, "Whom are you 
looking for?" And they answered again, "Jesus 
the Nazarene." Then He said, "I told you 
that I am he: if it is I you are looking for, let 
these men get away," meaning His disciples. 

But Peter, "who had a sword, drew it, and 
struck the high priest's servant, cutting off his 
right ear." Jesus said to Peter, "Sheathe your 
sword. Am I not to drink the cup which the 
Father has handed me?" 

8 John xviii, 6. 



210 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

Then, at the command of their captain, the Ro- 
man soldiers bound Jesus' hands behind Him, 
and led Him back to Jerusalem through the 
night, the crowd closing in behind them. And 
Jesus made no resistance, neither first nor last. 

Though it was now late in the night, Jesus was 
taken at once to Annas, (called also Hanan) , the 
former High Priest, who was the cruel and in- 
fluential father-in-law of Caiaphas, the actual 
High Priest. This Annas was a Sadducee, rich, 
powerful and avaricious, and his bitterness 
against Jesus can be traced to his fear that Jesus' 
popularity with the people would draw them 
away from the influence of the priests, and his 
anger at Jesus' having twice cleansed the Tem- 
ple, driving out from it the commercial element 
in which this Annas and his covetous family are 
said to have had a financial interest. It is known 
that they had founded certain shops where "le- 
gally pure" articles were sold, and that they, by 
wrong manipulation, had raised the price of 
doves for the sacrifices of the poor. But what- 
ever may have been the chief causes of this abom- 
inable old man's hatred of Jesus, it is clear that 
he was such a strong and determined enemy that 
he has gone into history with the terrible name 
of "the murderer of Jesus." Even a writer in 
the Talmud, the great book, as you know, of 
Jewish civil and religious law and tradition, calls 



JESUS IS BETRAYED 211 

Annas and his family "the viper brood." This 
then was the sort of man before whom Jesus was 
first led to be judged. 

Of course these trials of Jesus were no trials 
at all — they were merely a murderous con- 
spiracy. 

This Annas, then, asked Jesus "about his dis- 
ciples and about his teaching." 

Jesus replied, "I have spoken openly to the 
world ; I have always taught in the synagogues 
and in the temple, where all Jews gather ; I have 
said nothing in secret. Why ask me? Ask my 
hearers what I have said to them ; they know what 
I said." 

It will be noticed that while Jesus would al- 
ways answer any question which He knew to be 
honest, while He would give all His strength to 
explanations sincerely asked for, and would 
preach to the lowest being with as much — or more 
— willingness as to the highest — we remember 
how He first definitely announced Himself as the 
Messiah to the obscure woman beside the well in 
Samaria — He would not, on the contrary, al- 
ways answer questions whose askers He knew to 
be hypocrites and liars. 

But when He thus calmly replied to Annas, 
one of the priest's menials exclaimed, "Is that 
how you answer the high priest?" and struck 



212 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

Jesus. This was the first blow our Lord re- 
ceived. 

And how did He answer His assailant? Only 
with these words of self-restraint, intelligence, 
and judgment: "If I have said anything wrong, 
prove it; if I said what was true, why strike me?" 
If Jesus had said evil things, here was His 
trial and the time to accuse Him ; but if He had 
spoken good things, why should He be attacked ? 
So the brutal fellow only appeared to be what he 
was, a fool. 

As Annas, with all his cunning, could draw 
nothing from Jesus, he sent Him, bound, to his 
son-in-law, Caiaphas, the real High Priest, who 
it is supposed occupied the same palace as 
Annas. 4 

Caiaphas was then presiding over the San- 
hedrin, the great Jewish Court. Twenty-three 
members were required to be present at a meet- 
ing. There they sat at this unusual hour, these 
Jewish priests and elders, in a circular hall, on 
divans placed opposite each other, and with Caia- 
phas in the middle at one end. 

Jesus was brought in, closely guarded, and 
placed before Caiaphas. The Court had sought 
in vain to procure true witnesses against Jesus — 
they could find none. Therefore they had de- 
cided to bring witnesses of any kind, even false 

4 John xviii, 19-24. 



JESUS IS BETRAYED 213 

witnesses, in order that they might try and con- 
demn their prisoner without further and danger- 
ous delay. So the false witnesses were heard, 
but their evidence proved to be of no value. And 
all the time while they tried to spin this web of 
falsehood around Him, Jesus kept silent. Fi- 
nally came two men who accused Him of saying, 
"I can destroy the temple of God and build it 
in three days." Now Jesus had said, "Destroy 
this sanctuary and I will raise it up in three days" 
— meaning the temple of His own body which 
should be put to death, and His resurrection 
after three days. So He made no reply to this 
testimony. What was the use? Would such 
men be able to understand? 

Then Caiaphas arose, in all probability en- 
raged, and said, "Have you no reply to make? 
What of this evidence against you?" 

But Jesus was silent. Then Caiaphas, driven 
desperate by the unbroken silence of his victim, 
cried out, "I adjure you by the living God, tell 
us if you are the Christ, the Son of God." 

Then Jesus spoke. "Even so! But I tell you, 
in future you will all see the Son of man seated 
at the right hand of the Power and coming on 
the clouds of heaven." 5 

This then at last was the "blasphemy" which 
they had been longing to hear that they might 

5 Daniel vii. 13. 



214 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

condemn Him. Caiaphas tore his clothes, after 
the lawful manner of the High Priest on hearing 
any blasphemous words, and exclaimed trium- 
phantly, "He has blasphemed! What more evi- 
dence do we want. Look, you have heard his 
blasphemy for yourselves! What is your view?" 
Then amid silence, the calm and patient silence 
of Jesus, came the fatal judgment from these 
dishonorable judges, "He is doomed to death." 6 

e Matt, xxvi, 57-66. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

THE SO-CALLED TEIALS OF JESUS 

As a night session of the Sanhedrin was not 
legal, it was necessary for these men to meet 
again in the morning in order to condemn Jesus 
legally, and send Him then to the Roman author- 
ities, for the confirmation and execution of the 
sentence of death; for the Sanhedrin could judge 
and condemn, but had no legal right under the 
Roman law to inflict death. 1 Jesus therefore 
was led away by guards, to be held prisoner 
through the remainder of the night ; and as they 
led Him away, bound and defenseless, the 
menials and servants gathered around Him, and 
with the petty assurance of the ignorant and cow- 
ardly in the presence of greatness which has been 
apparently deprived of its power, they ridiculed 
Him and struck Him, and spat on Him, and 
knelt before Him in mockery. 

This scene humiliated not Jesus, the Son of 
God, but to this day, to this hour, it humiliates 
us, that we are members of a human race capable 
of such incredible meanness of spirit. 

1 Hausrath's "History of New Testament Times, The Time of 
Jesus," Vol. I, p. 82. 

215 



216 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

While these events were occurring, Peter and 
John had followed Jesus into the palace of the 
High Priest, and were anxiously awaiting the 
result of their Master's trial. It was a chilly 
spring night, verging toward dawn, and some of 
the servants had made a fire of coals, and Peter 
stood with them warming himself. A maid-serv- 
ant said, "You were with Jesus of Nazareth, 
too." And Peter, afraid to reply truthfully, 
said, "I have no idea what you mean." And a 
cock was heard crowing. Then the maid began 
to tell the others, "That fellow is one of them." 
But Peter, more and more afraid, denied again — 
and again a cock crew. A third time also he de- 
nied that he knew Jesus, and the consciousness 
of what he was doing so irritated him that he 
cursed, and said, "I do not know the man you 
mean." And the cock crew for the third time. 

As they were leading Jesus, still bound, from 
one part to another of the palace, the procession 
passed Peter, and Jesus heard his denial. 

"The Lord turned round and looked at Peter." 
Then Peter remembered what the Lord had said, 
and he "went outside and wept bitterly." 

When the morning dawned, Jesus, after a 
night of lowest insult and sleeplessness, was taken 
once more before the Court of the Sanhedrin, 
which — except two of its members named Nico^ 
demus and Joseph of Arimathea — confirmed the 



SO-CALLED TRIALS OF JESUS 217 

sentence of death, and ordered that Jesus should 
be taken before the Roman Procurator, or gov- 
ernor, whose name was Pontius Pilate, and who 
would have the power to command that Jesus be 
put to death. 

When Judas Iscariot heard that Jesus was 
thus condemned, the terrors of remorse descended 
upon him. He seemed all at once to realize his 
own crime. He rushed wildly to the Chief 
Priests and elders, giving back to them the thirty 
silver pieces and cried out to them, "I did wrong 
in betraying innocent blood." But they only 
stared at him, and replied coldly, "What does 
that matter to us? It is your affair, not ours." 
Then this miserable wretch threw the pieces of 
silver on the floor of the Temple and went away 
and hanged himself. Thus died Judas Iscariot. 

The Chief Priests cared nothing for Judas or 
his fate, but they were concerned as to what to 
do with the money, which, being "the price of 
blood" could not lawfully be put into the treas- 
ury of the Temple. So they decided to buy 
with it a field, called the Potter's Field, where 
strangers might be buried ; and to this day every 
burial ground for poor strangers and paupers is 
known as the Potter's Field. 

Now as to Pontius Pilate, he had come from 
Caesarea to Jerusalem in order to guard the pub- 
lic peace during the excitement of the great Feast 



218 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

of the Passover, and had established himself as 
usual in the palace on Mount Zion, as that high 
quarter of the city was called, which had been 
built by Herod the Great. It was a magnificent 
and luxurious abode, lying probably southwest of 
the Temple hill; with numberless apartments and 
intricate corridors crossing each other, with vari- 
ous arrangements of pillars and columns, and 
adorned with all sorts of vessels of massive gold 
and silver. The following description of the 
ground around the palace, which Hausrath 
quotes from Bell, 2 reads like an account of the 
modern park of Versailles: "The open spaces 
around the palace were everywhere planted with 
long avenues of trees of various species; beside 
them were broad canals and basins rich in all 
sorts of works of art, through which water poured 
forth." 

To this rich and worldly palace, at probably 
about seven o'clock in the morning, the members 
of the Sanhedrin and the other Chief Priests and 
elders brought Jesus, bound, to the Judgment 
Hall of Pilate, but none of them entered the 
Hall lest they, as orthodox Jews, be polluted, 
so they remained outside. There Pilate went 
out to them, and being a Roman he felt only 
suspicion and contempt for them. He now asked 
them of what they accused Jesus? They replied, 

2 Hausrath's "The Time of Jesus," Vol. II, p. 257. 



SO-CALLED TRIALS OF JESUS 219 

"We have discovered this fellow perverting our 
nation, forbidding tribute being paid to Caesar, 
and alleging he is King Messiah." Though part 
of these accusations were totally false, they made 
use of them, knowing that they would immedi- 
ately prejudice Pilate against the prisoner, Pi- 
late being a Roman official. And they added that 
had He not been a malefactor, a criminal, they 
would not have brought Him to Pilate. But 
Pilate knew their fanaticism and excitability, and 
had no faith whatever in the justice of their judg- 
ment, nor did he like to become involved in a 
man's death without being sure it was deserved, 
for fear of troublesome consequences. So he said, 
"Take him yourselves and sentence him accord- 
ing to your own Law." But the Jews replied, 
"We have no right to put anyone to death." So 
Pilate returned to the Judgment Hall to ex- 
amine the prisoner himself. 

There is, in the Church of San Rocco at Venice, 
a group of pictures painted by Tintoretto which 
tell the story of our Lord Jesus Christ. In 
one of them He stands like a majestic white 
spirit, glowing as if with the intensity of His own 
divine purity. To one seeing Him with the eyes 
of the spirit, He must have looked like this as 
He stood in the perfect majesty of sinlessness 
before Pilate in the Judgment Hall. 

Pilate entered, and bade Jesus approach. He 



220 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

saw a Man worn from fatigue, from persecution, 
from blows, bearing on His calm face the outer 
marks of the vilest insult. Pilate, looking at 
Him in wonder, said, "Then you are king of 
the Jews?" Jesus replied, "Are you saying this 
of your own accord, or did other people tell you 
about me?" Pilate answered, "Am I a Jew?" 
(that I should call you king?) "Your own na- 
tion and the high priests have handed you over 
to me. What have you done?" 

To this direct question Jesus did not reply. 
He only said, "My realm does not belong to this 
world ; if my realm did belong to this world, my 
men would have fought to prevent me being 
handed over to the Jews. ~No, my realm lies else- 
where." 

Pilate naturally considered this the speech of 
a dreamer, a harmless dreamer. To him a king 
meant a ruler, ruling visibly over material things. 
Pilate did not even believe, as the Jews did, in 
one God. He was a heathen. So he looked with 
not unkind contempt upon Jesus standing before 
him, pale and disordered and wasted, and talk- 
ing, with indeed some strange kind of serenity 
and majesty, about kingdoms. 

So Pilate said again, "So you are a king? 
you!" And Jesus replied, "Certainly, I am a 
king." "This is why I was born, this is why I 
came into the world, to bear testimony to the 



SO-CALLED TRIALS OF JESUS 221 

truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens 
to my voice." 

And Pilate said, "Truth! what is truth!" 
What do you mean, what are you talking about? 
For if the Jews themselves could not under- 
stand Jesus, how should Pilate? We know that 
Pilate was a mercenary, cruel man, without con- 
science, and had often proven himself weak and 
vacillating in his dealing with the Jews. Now, 
therefore, he must have been strongly affected 
by the personality of Jesus ; some stirring of per- 
haps mere superstition must have warned him 
to be cautious, for he would not commit himself 
to any action. He returned to the men of the 
Sanhedrin, the High Priests and elders, and said 
to them, "I cannot find anything wrong about 
him." 3 

"Luke xxii, 63-71; Luke xxiii, 1-4; John xviii, 12-40. 



CHAPTER XXIX 

THE STRUGGLE OF PILATE 

Now Pilate suddenly remembered that they 
had said Jesus was disturbing the nation from 
Galilee to Jerusalem, so he asked if He were a 
Galilean, and on being told that He was, Pilate 
decided to rid himself of his present quandary by 
sending Jesus to be judged by Herod Antipas, 
the ruler of Galilee, who had come to Jerusalem 
to the Passover, not from a sense of religious 
duty, of course, but to please his people for po- 
litical reasons, and himself enjoy the excitement 
of a great feast at Jerusalem. 

Hausrath tells us that Herod Antipas occu- 
pied another of the palaces built by Herod the 
Great, opposite the Temple. To this princely 
residence, therefore, Jesus was now led, still in 
His bonds, and accompanied by the cruel crowd 
of His Jewish accusers. 

Herod was anxious to see Jesus, of whose mira- 
cles He had heard. His seems to have been 
merely a cheap curiosity. St. Luke says he 
"hoped to see him perform some miracle" — as 
if a miracle were a juggler's trick performed to 

222 



THE STRUGGLE OF PILATE 223 

amuse the spectators. It throws light on the shal- 
low mind of this contemptible ruler. 

So when Jesus was brought before him Herod 
asked Him many questions, evidently childish 
questions, unworthy questions. And to these 
Jesus answered not one word. Then Herod the 
ruler, being accustomed to obedience and syco- 
phancy, quickly became enraged at this Man who 
set him at nought by mere silence. Herod set 
his soldiers upon Jesus like so many dogs, and 
they, slaves to their master, mocked Him, and 
put a "gorgeous robe" upon Him. 

But Herod, who had suffered from the super- 
stitious fears which had attacked him after his 
murder of John the Baptist, had no intention of 
taking part again in the killing of a Prophet, and 
so, as he could make nothing of Jesus' silence, 
he sent Him back again to Pilate. 

Jesus had now been subjected to five so-called 
"trials," and being brought again before Pilate 
He was made to suffer a sixth. But Pilate did 
not know what to do. As he sat on the judgment 
seat his wife, whose name was Claudia Procula, 
sent a messenger to him saying that she had had 
a dream that morning concerning Jesus, in which 
she had "suffered greatly," and solemnly warning 
her husband, "Do nothing with that innocent 
man." Such a warning, reaching Pilate when 
his own instinct had already cautioned him, must 



224 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

have plunged him deeper in uncertainty. Cruel 
and weak though he was, he wished to spare the 
life of this strange Prisoner who stood silent and 
meek, yet majestic, before him. 

So, as it was the custom at the Passover for 
the Roman governor to release, as a favor to the 
people, one Jewish prisoner who might then be 
under sentence of death, Pilate asked them if he 
should release Jesus. But there was a prisoner 
named Bar- Abbas, who had both robbed and 
murdered, and the people — incited to this by the 
High Priests and elders — clamored that he, not 
Jesus, should be set free. 

Then Pilate asked what he should do with 
Jesus? And the fanatical mob, whose passions 
were blown hither and thither like a feather in 
the wind, who were easily swayed by the crafty 
priests and elders, and yet of whom some, per- 
haps, only five days before had cried "Hosanna" 
to this same Jesus — this mob cried out, "Have 
him crucified!" 

Pilate said, "Why, what has he done wrong? 
But they shouted on more fiercely than ever, 
Have him crucified!" 

Pilate saw that he could do nothing more. 
To oppose the people might be to incite them to 
revolt and bring down upon him the anger of 
his master, the Roman emperor Tiberius. So, 
thinking first of his own interest and safety, and 



THE STRUGGLE OF PILATE 225 

only secondly of his pity for Jesus and his sense 
of justice, he "took some water, and washed his 
hands in presence of the crowd, saying, 'I am 
innocent of this good man's blood. It is your 
affair!' To this all the people replied, 'His blood 
be on us and on our children.' " Thus spoke 
the mob, as mobs have spoken before and since, 
hysterical, bloodthirsty, without conscience. But 
no mob ever spoke such terrible words as these. 
So Pilate released the prisoner Bar-Abbas, 
but Jesus he commanded to be scourged, perhaps 
still hoping that the people would be satisfied with 
this punishment — for it was a barbarous one, 
done with a weapon like the Russian knout, made 
of leathern thongs set, for nearly all their length, 
with pieces of bone and lead, whose edges were 
left jagged to cut and rend the flesh. Thirty- 
nine stripes were given. The victim was stripped 
of all his clothes before the people, his hands were 
tied to a pillar so that his body was bent forward 
and his back exposed to the merciless blows of 
the scourge. Usually those who were thus 
scourged lost consciousness after a while, or were 
thrown into convulsions, and sometimes they died 
either during the ordeal or just afterwards. To 
such an unspeakable punishment as this was 
Jesus, the loving, the merciful, the doer of good, 
subjected. And after the scourging was over 
— and He, whose body was sound and healthy, 



226 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

neither fainted nor died, as people sometimes 
did — He was once more derided, as a preliminary 
of death, according to the uncivilized Roman cus- 
tom, which allowed insult to be offered to exe- 
cuted men, even during their dying agonies. 

Pilate's soldiers took Jesus, all bleeding as He 
was, into their guard room, and calling their fel- 
lows to join in this vile scene, they clad Him in 
a purple robe, put on His drooping head a crown 
made of thorns, and in His right hand — trem- 
bling no doubt from the shock of pain and torture 
— a reed for a scepter, and then bowed before 
Him, mocking Him with their "Hail, King of 
the Jews." Not satisfied with ridicule, they pro- 
ceeded to insult. They spat upon Him, and 
snatching the reed from His hand they struck 
His head with it in a mad fury of rage at His 
silent endurance. 

Even then Pilate could not make up his mind 
to deliver Jesus up to be killed. Once more he 
brought Him forth to His Jewish accusers, and 
He stood there before them clad in the mocking 
purple robe of His derided kingship, His eyes 
quiet with an awe-inspiring serenity under the 
crown of thorns from which dripped its dew of 
blood. 

Pilate said, "There is your king!" Would you 
kill Him, this submissive yet kingly victim, who 
hath done no wrong? But they only cried out, 






THE STRUGGLE OF PILATE 227 

these "Chief Priests and officers" and the rest, 
"Crucify him, crucify him!" Then do you take 
Him and crucify Him, Pilate said again, "for 
I find no fault in him." The Jews repeated that 
He should die because He had broken their law 
by calling Himself a Son of God. 

At this Pilate, filled with a superstitious fear 
of Jesus' possible godhead, returned to the Judg- 
ment Hall with Jesus, and asked Him, "Where 
do you come from?" For Pilate could not rid 
himself of the feeling that he was dealing with a 
Man who was more than man. But Jesus did 
not answer. Why should He? He had told 
them again and again who He was. He knew 
it was fruitless to say more. He was to die. 

Then Pilate was very angry. He said, Are 
you thus silent even to me, the governor? Do 
you not know that it is in my power to kill you or 
to release you? 

Jesus replied, with a calm dignity that put this 
Roman ruler to shame, "You would have no 
power over me, unless it had been granted you 
from above. So you are less guilty than he who 
betrayed me to you." You were only a second- 
ary instrument in these events. 

These words must have had a strong effect 
upon Pilate. Never in his life of witnessing many 
dreadful human sufferings had he seen a man, 



228 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

bleeding from a recent torture, worn from insult 
and cruelty, helpless, friendless, alone, yet stand 
before him like a king, towering above him, the 
powerful Pilate, by pure spiritual superiority, 
dominating him by some supreme Power before 
which his soul was compelled to kneel. He was 
therefore again "anxious to release him." 

Then the Jews cried out, knowing how to work 
upon Pilate's fears of the Emperor Tiberius 
Caesar, "If you release him you are no friend of 
Caesar's! Anyone who makes himself a king is 
against Caesar!" 

Then Pilate sat down in the Judgment seat, 
still feebly holding out against them. But they 
cried out, "Off with him ! Off with him ! Crucify 
him!" Pilate said again, "Crucify your king?" 
And the High Priests gave him the final hypo- 
critical answer, to which he, the servant of Caesar, 
could make no further reply, "We have no king 
but Caesar!" 

Then Pilate delivered Jesus over to the Roman 
soldiers, and to the High Priests and elders, to 
be crucified. "So they took Jesus, and he went 
away, carrying the cross by himself." 

The moral of Pilate's struggle between mo- 
tives of good and evil, letting the evil prevail, 
may be this : He was indeed but an instrument 
in the greatest crime the world has ever com- 



THE STRUGGLE OF PILATE 229 

mitted; but if his past life had not been selfish 
and cruel and abominable, would he have been 
chosen as a fit instrument for the base service 
he had to perform? * 

a Luke xxiii, 5-25; Matt, xxvii, 11-31; Mark xv, 1-20; John xix, 
1-17. 



CHAPTER XXX 

THE CRUCIFIXION 

Death by crucifixion was, even in that partly- 
uncivilized age, one of the greatest cruelty and in- 
famy, and it was not until the reign of the Roman 
Emperor Constantine (306-337 a.d.) that, by the 
more humane sentiment of men, it was abolished. 
It was also a death by torture much worse than 
hanging or beheading, which only lasted a brief 
instant. To die on a cross meant that the cross 
was first laid upon the ground, the victim placed 
upon it, and heavy nails driven through each 
hand and foot. There was usually a wooden 
piece affixed beneath the feet to prevent the body 
being torn away By its own weight. The cross 
was then raised and planted firmly in the earth, 
and the sufferer was left to receive the taunts 
and insults — or even blows — of all who passed 
by for that purpose, and to die slowly through 
long hours of agony — of acute pain, of cramped 
misery, of festering wounds, of starvation, of 
cruel thirst — until death or unconsciousness mer- 
cifully relieved him. So terrible was this pro- 
longed death that there was a custom sometimes, 

230 



THE CRUCIFIXION 231 

but not always, practiced among the Romans of 
striking the victim in the upper part of the side 
in order to hasten death; and among the Jews 
certain ladies of wealth contributed money to 
provide wine mixed with a strong opiate, of 
which a draught was given to the crucified to 
assuage their suffering. The Rabbis justified 
this practice from the text in Proverbs xxxi, 6, in 
the words of the wise mother of King Lemuel, 
"Give strong drink unto him that is ready to 
perish." 

In the case of Jesus the merciful preliminary 
blow was not given; and when they offered 
Him the cup of wine and myrrh, He refused it. 1 
He, the All-Merciful, showed no mercy to Him- 
self in the hour of His final self-sacrifice. 

A company of Roman soldiers, in full armor, 
commanded by their centurion, or captain, were 
ordered by Pilate to proceed to the crucifixion of 
Jesus. They took off from Him the purple robe, 
and clad Him again in His own humble and now 
blood-stained garments, and the procession 
started for the place of death, which lay outside 
the city gates, and was known as the place of a 
skull, or in the Hebrew Golgotha. The Greek 
word for "skull" is rendered in the "King James" 
version of the Bible as "Calvary." 2 

1 Mark xv, 23. 

2 Luke xxiii, 33. 



232 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

It is possible that the mortal body of Jesus, 
which had already suffered so terribly, now be- 
gan to fail in strength, and that under the bur- 
den of the cross which they laid on His bleeding 
shoulders, He may have stumbled, or even fallen. 
For, as they proceeded they met a man named 
Simon, a Cyrenian, who was coming from the 
country into Jerusalem, and they compelled him 
to bear Jesus' cross, and walk behind Him. As 
they went, a large crowd of people gathered and 
followed the solemn procession, among them 
many women who began to weep and lament for 
Jesus. But He paused, and said to them, firmly, 
"Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but 
weep for yourselves, and for your children!" 
And He foretold again the dreadful days that 
were to come to them and to their city. 

In the procession were also two common 
thieves, who were to be crucified with Jesus. The 
cross of Jesus was therefore set up in the mid- 
dle, and the crosses of the thieves at each side of 
Him. And when Jesus was nailed on the cross, 
they placed above His head the inscription which 
Pilate had caused to be written in Hebrew, Latin 
and Greek: "Jesus the Nazarene, the King 
of the Jews." 

If Pilate intended this ironic title as a last 
taunt to the Jews whom he despised, the shaft 
went home, for the High Priests protested, say- 



THE CRUCIFIXION 233 

ing, "Do not write, The King of the Jews; 
write, He Said I Am the King of the Jews." 
But Pilate dismissed them with the curt reply, 
"What I have written, I have written." 

The cross was then set in its place ; and instead 
of uttering the mortal groans of a man in agony, 
Jesus broke His silence with these words of 
mercy, "Father, forgive them, for they do not 
know what they are doing. ..." 

As sometimes men had been taken down from 
the cross before death, and revived, four soldiers 
were left to guard the Crucified. According to 
the custom which gave to the executioners the 
clothes of the victims, these men took the gar- 
ments of Jesus and divided them, "one for each 
soldier. But as the tunic was seamless, woven 
right down in a single piece," the soldiers, not 
wanting to tear the coat, drew lots for it, and 
thus unknowingly fulfilled the Scriptural proph- 
ecy which said, "They distributed my clothes 
among them, and drew lots for my raiment." 
After this the soldiers kept watch in obedience 
to their orders, passing the time according to 
their own habits. 

Some of the onlookers had been awed into 
quietness by this tragic scene, but some cried, "If 
you are the king of the Jews, save yourself." 
Others, persisting in their stupid misunderstand- 
ing of His words, said, "You were to destroy the 



234 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

temple, and build it in three days ! Save yourself, 
if you are God's Son!" And the High Priests 
and Scribes and elders passed by Jesus, mocking 
Him, saying, "He saved others, but he cannot 
save himself! He, the 'King of Israel!' Let him 
come down now from the cross ; then we will be- 
lieve in him!" One of the crucified thieves also 
said, "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself 
and us as well." But the other thief rebuked 
him, and reminded him that they indeed were 
thieves and justly punished for it, "but he has 
done no harm." And he said to the Lord, "Jesus, 
do not forget me when you come to reign." And 
Jesus, forgiving the penitent thief, said, "I tell 
you truly, you will be in paradise with me this 
very day." 

But our Lord was not left wholly alone among 
His enemies. St. John tells us that Mary, His 
Mother, and Mary, who was the wife of a man 
named Cleopas, and that same Mary of Magdala, 
who with other faithful and adoring women, had 
followed Jesus from place to place ever since 
His forgiveness of her and her penitent turning 
away from sin, were standing near the cross. St. 
John also was there; and when Jesus beheld him, 
He said to His Mother, " 'Woman, there is your 
son!' Then he said to the disciple, 'Son, there is 
your mother!' And from that hour the disciple 
took her to his home." Thus, in His last agony, 



THE CRUCIFIXION 235 

Jesus confided the care of His Mother to His 
best-loved disciple. 

For six long hours He hung on the cross. At 
about the "sixth hour," which was the third after 
the Crucifixion, the sky was darkened, and this 
deep gloom lasted until the "ninth hour." At 
this "ninth hour," that is to say, at the end of the 
six hours of torture, Jesus uttered the last cry of 
His human body, His mortal suffering. "Jesus 
gave a loud cry, Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthanei" 
(that is, 'My God, my God, why hast thou for- 
saken me?') " It was His body of a man, crying 
out from the depth of human anguish — not 
merely the torture of the cross, but the preced- 
ing trials, and mockery, and cruel derision and 
scorn, which, coming in many cases from the 
very people whom He had so blessed and healed 
and loved, must have tortured His great human 
and divine heart as the jagged nails now rent 
His body. This last cry of Jesus brings Him 
nearer to us in our humanity, and helps to fulfill 
His mission to us as a Man, One who under- 
stands our woes and our weaknesses as if He were 
one of us as well as One with God who made us. 
From this thought we can gather, if we will, the 
deepest consolation. 

But, if Jesus cried with "a loud voice," He 
was not weakened unto death even by all which 
He had undergone for many hours past. The 



286 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

voice of those who die exhausted cannot be loud. 
St. Matthew says that He even cried aloud twice. 
At his first cry one of those who stood near — 
perhaps one of the soldiers — said, "He is calling 
for Elijah." Another offered Him a sponge 
dipped in vinegar, which he held up to Him on 
a rod. The others said, "Stop, let us see if 
Elijah does come to save him." For they thought 
that "Eloi," meaning "My God" in the tongue 
which Jesus spoke, was "Elijah." 

When Jesus uttered his second "loud cry," 
He said, "Father, I trust my spirit to thy hands." 
John tells us that He said, "It is finished." 
And when He had spoken, He "bowed his head, 
and gave up his spirit." 

Then the sun was completely darkened by 
an eclipse, and the veil of the Temple, which 
screened the Holy of Holies, "was torn in two 
from top to bottom, the earth shook, the rocks 
were split, the tombs were opened, and a number 
of bodies of the saints who slept the sleep of 
death rose up — they left the tombs after his res- 
urrection and entered the holy city and appeared 
to a number of people." 3 

Now when the captain and the other soldiers 
saw the earth quake and the cloven rocks and 
the darkness, they were afraid, and said, "This 
man was certainly a son of God." The people 

* Matt, xxvii, 51^53. 



THE CRUCIFIXION 237 

also who had not already departed, and the group 
of women — Mary the Mother, and Mary the wife 
of Cleopas, and Mary Magdalene, besides "a 
number of women" — saw and bore witness to the 
circumstances of Jesus' death. "And when all 
the crowds who had collected for the sight saw 
what had happened, they turned away beating 
their breasts." 4 

4 Matt, xxvii, 31-56 ; Mark xv, 21-41 ; Luke xxiii, 25-4.9 ; John xix, 
16-30. 



CHAPTER XXXI 

THE RESURRECTION 

As the following day would be Saturday, the 
Sabbath, and more holy than usual because of the 
Passover, and as sometimes crucified men re- 
mained alive for many hours, the Jews did not 
want the bodies of the dying to be left any longer 
on the crosses, so they went to Pilate and re- 
quested that the legs of the three victims should 
be broken — to insure their death — and that they 
should then be taken away for burial. As Far- 
rar says, they who did not hesitate to murder their 
Messiah at the Passover, thought it wrong that 
this Passover should be polluted by His Holy 
Body hanging on the cross. But this was char- 
acteristic of their constant hypocrisy. So Pi- 
late gave orders, and the soldiers, according to 
rule, broke the legs of the two thieves. Prob- 
ably they shrank from touching Him whose dy- 
ing cry had so impressed them. But being com- 
pelled to obedience, they approached Jesus, and 
found that He was already dead. They did not 
therefore strike Him — again unconsciously ful- 

238 



THE RESURRECTION 239 

filling a Scriptural prophecy that "A bone of 
him shall not be broken." But one of the sol- 
diers, less impressionable perhaps than the others, 
and knowing that they would be held responsible 
for the completion of the execution, thrust his 
long spear into the side of Jesus, and water and 
blood came from the wound. Thus no doubt 
could remain that Jesus was dead. 

We have spoken before of Joseph of Ari- 
mathsea, a rich member of the Sanhedrin, who 
was inclined to believe in Jesus, though he dared 
not openly avow it, but who had not agreed with 
his fellow members of the Sanhedrin when they 
pronounced the sentence of death upon Him. 
This man now went to Pilate, and asked for the 
body of Jesus that he might bury it. Perhaps 
he felt the regret and remorse that come to men 
when they feel that they have not done all they 
could for those they love while they yet lived. 
Pilate asked if Jesus were surely dead, and called 
the captain to inquire of him; and when he 
learned the truth, he gave his consent to Joseph. 
Then Nicodemus, the other rich man who had 
been favorably inclined to Jesus but lacked cour- 
age to profess his faith, came also with costly 
spices to place them on the body. Joseph brought 
some fine linen, and with the spices they bound 
the wounded body of our Lord in this long piece 
of linen, after the Jewish manner, and laid it 



240 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

reverently in Joseph's tomb, which he had caused 
to be built for himself, and which stood in a 
garden belonging to him that was near the place 
of Calvary. And the women who had come from 
Galilee with Jesus, Mary Magdalene and the 
others — though Mary the Mother seems to have 
been taken away by John from this terrible scene 
— stood near by and witnessed the burial of their 
Lord, and saw the great stone rolled before the 
door of the sepulcher. And then they departed, 
to prepare more spices for the embalming before 
the Sabbath came — and after this, to obey the 
commandment of Sabbath rest, for the Sabbath 
began at sunset of Friday. It was then their 
intention to return to the Holy Tomb after the 
Sabbath, early on Sunday morning. 

Meanwhile, on the Sabbath, the High Priests 
and Pharisees came anxiously to Pilate, and said, 
"We remember, sir, that when this impostor was 
alive he said, 'I will rise after three days.' " Now 
they had no faith whatever in His resurrection, 
but they feared that His disciples would come 
in the night and carry away the body of Jesus 
and bury it elsewhere, so that they could say to 
the people that He was risen from the dead, and 
the people would then believe, and trouble would 
follow for those who had crucified Him. 

We can almost hear the tone of contempt with 



THE RESURRECTION 241 

which Pilate replied, "Take a guard of soldiers, 
go and make it as secure as you can." 

So the Jews hastened away to the Tomb, exam- 
ining it carefully, no doubt, to make sure of their 
object, and sealed up the stone at the entrance to 
the sepulcher, leaving a guard of soldiers there 
to watch it through the starry silence of that 
long, wonderful night. 

In the early morning, just before the dawn of 
Sunday, Mary Magdalene and "the other 
Mary," and two other women, Salome and Jo- 
anna, came hurrying to the sepulcher of their 
Lord, bringing with them the sweet spices which 
they had prepared as the last poor offering of 
their service of love. They were wondering how 
they should be able to enter the sepulcher, or who 
would push away for them the great stone which 
closed it. 

But they need not have been troubled, for there 
was, either just before they came or as they 
came, an earthquake, and "an angel of the Lord 
came down from heaven, and went and rolled 
away the boulder and sat on it. His appearance 
was like lightning and his raiment white as 
snow." x 

So frightened were the sentries by this dread 
vision that they "shook and became like dead 
men." The women too were trembling with fear. 

1 Matt, xxviii, 1-6. 



242 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

But the angel said, "Have no fear; I know you 
are looking for the crucified Jesus. He is not 
here, he has risen as he told you he would." And 
he commanded them to go quickly to the disci- 
ples and tell them also. Mary Magdalene, joy- 
ful and yet afraid, went straightway to bear 
these tidings to Peter and John, and they came 
running to the Tomb. John outran the older 
Peter, and arriving breathless he looked into the 
sepulcher and saw that it was empty except for 
the linen clothes in which Jesus had been wrapped, 
and which lay there, folded. John did not 
enter; but Peter entered and also saw the linen 
lying there, and the Tomb empty. Xow John 
too went in, and "when he saw for himself he was 
convinced." Then both John and Peter, over- 
come by this revelation, went away to their home. 
But Mary Magdalene remained there, and as 
she sat weeping and looking into the empty sep- 
ulcher, Jesus Himself appeared to her. St. John 
tells us that, for some reason which we cannot un- 
derstand, Mary Magdalene did not know Him; 
but when He said to her, "Mary," she recognized 
Him. It would seem to us as if His bodv had 
been in some way veiled, but His spirit was im- 
mediately known to her when He spoke. And 
He said, "Cease clinging to me. I have not as- 
cended yet to the Father, but go to my brothers 
and tell them, 'I am ascending to my Father and 



THE RESURRECTION 243 

yours, to my God and yours.' " 2 We pan imag- 
ine how wildly then her heart must have beat as 
she hurried away to obey His commandment and 
carry His message to the disciples. 

Then Jesus also appeared to the other women, 
saying, "Hail!" And they fell down at His feet 
and worshiped Him. And He said, "Have no 
fear! Go and tell my brothers to leave for Gali- 
lee; they shall see me there." So these women 
could bear testimony that Jesus was risen. But 
when they had told these things to the apostles, 
it "seemed in their opinion to be nonsense; they 
would not believe them." 

Meanwhile, the soldiers who had guarded the 
Tomb, knowing now that it was empty, and trou- 
bled by the vision and the events they had wit- 
nessed, went to the Jews and told them all. The 
Jews must have received their words with some 
anger, and with their usual incredulity. Their 
theory was that the soldiers had fallen asleep, and 
the body of Jesus had been stolen by His disci- 
ples. Where faith is entirely absent it is easy to 
find obvious reasons against almost any fact ; but 
they must have known that a guard of Roman 
soldiers, ordered to keep a watch, would be very 
unlikely to risk disgrace, perhaps death, by fall- 
ing asleep. And if, indeed, some of them slept, 
it is evidently absurd to suppose that all of them 

3 John xx. 



244 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

had done so. But the Jews told the soldiers they 
must say that they had slept, and the disciples 
had stolen the body of Jesus, and they gave them 
not only large sums of money as a bribe, but the 
further and necessary assurance that they would 
protect them from punishment by Pilate for 
failure in their duty in case it reached his ears. 
The soldiers, influenced by the heavy bribes, and 
afraid in any case of the Jews' power to report to 
Pilate, by any sort of explanation, the failure of 
their watch, confused also no doubt by the super- 
stitious fright they had experienced from the 
earthquake and the vision at the Tomb, agreed to 
spread this false tale; and St. Matthew says, 
"And this story has been disseminated among the 
Jews down to the present day." 

St. Luke and St. Paul (in Luke xxiv, 34, and 
I Corinthians xv, 5) both testify that Jesus ap- 
peared to St. Peter ; but of the details of this ap- 
pearance we know nothing. 

In the evening of the same day on which He 
appeared to Mary Magdalene and the other wo- 
men, two of His disciples were walking on the 
road from Jerusalem to the village of Emmaus 
"about seven miles" away, earnestly talking of 
the wonderful events of the day, of our Lord's 
death and His reported resurrection, when they 
were joined by a stranger, who walked with them, 
and asked them of what they were talking? 



THE RESURRECTION 245 

The disciple whose name was Cleopas asked 
him a question in return : Are you a stranger that 
you do not know the important things which have 
been happening here? And the Stranger said, 
What things? Then they told him of Jesus' 
death and burial, and of His appearance to the 
women, and that the apostles who went to the 
tomb saw indeed the empty sepulcher, as the wo- 
men had described it, but saw not Jesus, and they 
were discouraged. Then the Stranger said, "O 
foolish men, with hearts so slow to believe after 
all the prophets have declared!" And He re- 
lated to them the prophecies from the Scriptures 
concerning Jesus, and how all must be fulfilled. 

When they reached Emmaus the Stranger be- 
came silent, and was about to leave them, but they 
urged Him to stay with them, for something in 
His words and spirit held and deeply affected 
them. So He stayed with them. 

But when they were together at the evening 
meal, "He took the loaf, blessed it, broke it and 
handed it to them." Then suddenly they knew 
Him, that He was their risen Lord. "Then their 
eyes were opened and they recognized him, but 
he vanished from their sight." They were 
thrilled, then, with joy and emotion. "They said 
to one another, 'Did not our hearts glow within us 
when he was talking to us on the road, opening 
up the Scriptures for us?' " So they left Em- 



246 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

maus immediately, and hurried back to Jerusa- 
lem to find and tell the apostles of their miracu- 
lous experience. 

They found the eleven apostles sitting to- 
gether in a room carefully locked for fear lest the 
Jews should come to persecute them. But they 
were in a joyful mood, and told the newcomers 
that "the Lord had really risen, and that he had 
appeared to Simon" (Peter). Then Cleopas, 
and the other disciple, excited and breathless as 
they must have been from their hasty journey 
and the nature of their tidings, told how they 
too had seen the Lord. 

And even while they were speaking, another 
miracle occurred — Jesus himself "stood among 
them." 

Now, mark what followed : they were terrified, 
and supposed they had seen a ghost. 

One pronounced human weakness is an almost 
universal fear of the dead. Why we should feel 
this fear we do not know, for there is no reason 
whatever for it, and it places us in the same cate- 
gory with the timid horse who shies from a 
shadow on the road because he does not know 
what it is. It is simply that base and unspiritual 
quality which we call fear, and which is one of 
the greatest bars to our spiritual progress. Je- 
sus, of course, knew this fear in the human hearts 
of even His best apostles, and may this not ex- 



THE RESURRECTION 247 

plain why He chose to appear to Mary Magda- 
lene and to the disciples and apostles at various 
times with His personality veiled, as it were, 
from their eyes, that they might not suffer the 
shock of fear? 

Yet even though He had revealed Himself 
risen to Mary and the women, and to Peter, they 
were not even then adjusted to this great idea; 
and so, when He now came among them they 
were "terrified." 

Jesus asked them why they were frightened. 
"Why do doubts invade your mind?" That is, 
why do you doubt and question and fear Me? 
"Look at my hands and feet. It is I ! Feel me 
and see; a ghost has not flesh and bones, as you 
see I have." And He showed them His pierced 
hands and feet. It was too wonderful, too joy- 
ful, they were afraid to believe such happiness as 
this. So He asked them if they had any food. 
He would eat before them, and reassure them 
completely. When He had eaten a piece of fish, 
He reminded them that these things which had 
happened were only the fulfillment of what He 
had told them when He was yet with them. 
"Then he opened their minds to understand the 
Scriptures" — that they might see how all had 
been fulfilled. And He said, "Peace be with 
you ! As the Father sent me forth, I am sending 
you forth." And as he said this, "he breathed 



248 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

on them, and added, 'Receive the Holy Spirit! 
If you remit the sins of any, they are remitted: 
if you retain them, they are retained.' " 

The only apostle who was absent at this time 
was Thomas. Thomas was loving but, as al- 
ready said, inclined to doubt and melancholy, and 
so when the other apostles told him they had seen 
Jesus risen, he could not believe, much as he 
longed to do so. But eight days later they were 
all gathered together again, Thomas also being 
there, and though the door was shut Jesus sud- 
denly stood among them, and said "Peace be 
with you!" Then He spoke to Thomas: "Look 
at my hands, put your finger here ; and put your 
hand here into my side; cease your unbelief and 
believe." 

Thomas obeyed Him and, believing, because 
his bodily senses convinced him, he exclaimed, 
"My Lord and my God!" Then Jesus said, 
"You believe because you have seen me? Blessed 
be those who believe though they have never 



3 John xix; John xx; Mark xv; Luke xxiii; Luke xxiv; Matt, 
xxvii; Matt, xxviii. 



CHAPTER XXXII 

THE ASCENSION 

The apostles now returned happy and hopeful 
to Galilee, as Jesus had commanded them to do, 
knowing that according to His promise they 
would see Him there, but they did not know when 
or how. So they waited in patience, and to earn 
their livelihood some of them returned to their 
occupation of fishermen by the Sea of Galilee, 
from which Jesus had called them to follow Him. 
But how much must they have changed since 
then ! These simple and ignorant men had lived 
three and a half years in the company of Jesus, 
taught constantly by His word and deed, and 
now they had the assurance — the most wonderful 
of all — that He had risen from the dead. There 
were Simon Peter, Thomas, Bartholomew, John 
and James, and two others. All of them went 
fishing, but catching nothing the whole night 
through they had no food. 

As morning dawned, a Man stood on the 
shore looking at them, and presently He asked 
them, "Lads, have you got anything?" They 
said, "No." "Throw your net on the right of the 

249 



250 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

boat, and you will have a take." Then they be- 
gan to wonder about the Stranger, who spoke in 
this way to them. But they cast the net, and it 
became so full of fish that they could not draw 
it up. Then John said to Peter, "It is the 
Lord!" As soon as the loving and impetuous 
Peter heard this, he put on his fisherman's coat — 
for he had taken off his clothes to work better — 
and "jumped into the water, while the rest of the 
disciples came ashore in the punt (they were not 
far from land, only about a hundred yards), 
dragging their netful of fish." 

When they reached the shore they found a 
"fire of coals," and fish cooking, and bread. And 
Jesus told them to bring some of the fish. And 
there were a hundred and fifty-three large fish. 
Jesus then bade them eat. All this time none of 
them dared ask who He was, for they knew it 
was their Lord. Thus again had He come to 
them in all gentleness and mercy. "This was 
the third time," according to St. John. 

After they had satisfied their hunger, Jesus 
spoke gravely to Peter, "Simon, son of John," 
He said, "do you love me more than the others 
do?" Peter answered, "Why, Lord, you know I 
love you." Jesus said, "Then feed my lambs." 
And the second and the third time He repeated 
the question, and Peter answered yes, and was 
grieved that the Lord seemed to doubt his love, 



THE ASCENSION 251 

and Jesus said, "Then feed my sheep." In this 
way Jesus gave His solemn command to Peter — 
and through him to His Church — to shelter and 
protect, and to spread the Gospel. 

We do not know how He parted with them on 
this occasion, nor whether it was now that He 
commanded them to assemble on a mountain in 
Galilee. But we know that they came together 
there, and perhaps with them those "five hundred 
brothers" of whom St. Paul testifies twenty years 
later in his First Epistle to the Corinthians, xv, 
6, where he says, "The majority of whom survive 
to this day, though some have died." And St. 
Matthew says of this meeting on the mountain, 
with that usual candor of the Gospels which is 
one of the strongest proofs of their truth, "When 
they saw him they worshiped him, though some 
were in doubt." 

"Though some were in doubt," and some may 
always doubt, but Faith remains. For Faith is 
one of the big things, like Life and Death and 
Love. In some it can be modified, in others dis- 
turbed, but it cannot be entirely destroyed, and 
"blessed are those who believe though they see 
not." 

It was here that Jesus told them again to go 
forth and teach "all nations," and concluded with 
that enriching and comforting promise, "And I 



252 THE LIFE OF LIVES 

will be with you all the time, to the very end of 
the world." 

St. Paul also testifies to an appearance of Je- 
sus to the apostle James, brother of John, but 
this is not mentioned by the Gospels. 

And now the last earthly appearance of our 
Lord must be recorded, about forty days after 
His crucifixion. The apostles had returned to 
Jerusalem, in obedience to Jesus' command, and 
Jesus came to them there, though under what 
precise circumstances we are not told. But from 
Jerusalem He "led them out as far as Beth- 
any," that peaceful little village which He loved. 
And somewhere in that quiet countryside He 
paused, and "lifting his hands, he blessed them. 
And as he blessed them, he parted from them." 
So He passed out of their sight. 

Then they fell down and worshiped Him, and 
went back joyfully to Jerusalem, ready for any 
fate which might befall them in His service, 
knowing that all He had told them had been ful- 
filled, and that they were endowed with the 
Love of God, with Truth, and with Life forever- 
more. 

So ended this wonderful period of the life of 
Jesus Christ on earth, His life of only about 
thirty-three years. How humble had been that 
life, how — in the worldly sense — poor ! He had 
lived on barley loaves and fish, or whatever was 



THE ASCENSION 253 

offered Him by the hospitality of the villages 
and towns where He ministered to the people, 
healing and teaching them. He had had no 
home ; never had He possessed any portion of the 
earth which He could call His own. Often 
weary and half nourished, He had maintained 
His cause against the slyest, subtlest, most in- 
sidious enemies, and never had He yielded to 
them an inch of ground. Mild indeed He was, 
but militant He never failed to be when Truth 
and Justice were at stake. His life was only for 
His mission — and at the last that life was sold 
for a pitiful sum of money. Yet He was the 
source of the Christian religion, the Savior, even 
in a practical sense, of the world. The beauty 
of intelligent and loving humility, of justice from 
man to man, of courageous and honest defense of 
what is right, of service inspired by love: those 
are some of the truths for which He died. And 
He died for us, that we might live, here and 
hereafter. 



THE END 



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